Nelson Takes Quiet Road to the Top

Larry Nelson has a secret that Tiger Woods probably would love to know.

It’s not about the hot streak Nelson is riding into the Toshiba Senior Classic, which begins today at Newport Beach Country Club. Woods knows about streaks.

It’s not about making crucial putts with tournament titles on the line. Woods certainly knows about that.

It’s about seizing control of his tour without attracting much attention. At that, Nelson is an expert, while Woods apparently knows very little.

Nelson’s current streak closely rivals the one put together by Woods last year. Nelson has won six of the last 10 tournaments he has entered and has had 12 consecutive top-10 finishes. Woods won nine of 20 tournaments in 2000 and had 17 top-10 finishes.

In doing so, Woods graced the covers of newspapers and magazines and appeared on nearly every TV sports show. Nelson, the Senior PGA Tour player of the year in 2000 when he was the leading money winner, has managed to stay relatively anonymous.

In a field that includes 37 of the top 38 money winners from last year, Nelson is this week’s favorite. But so far he has received only one interview request, despite having won twice in four tournaments this season.

The secret? Nobody knows, least of all Nelson.

“I don’t know that I try to maintain any profile at all,” Nelson said. “That’s just kind of the way I’m viewed. . . . It’s just kind of the way things are.”

Nelson, 53, hasn’t exactly come out of nowhere. Between 1981-87 he won two PGA titles and the U.S. Open, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros as the only players to win three majors in the ‘80s.

He played on Ryder Cup teams in 1979, ’81 and ‘87, posting a 9-3-1 record. He won 10 times in a 23-year PGA Tour career, but didn’t become a household name.

Nelson is a Vietnam War veteran who did not start playing golf until age 21. He is a former pool-hall gambler who once played nine ball for $800. He quit pool and taught himself to play golf by reading Ben Hogan’s “Five Fundamentals of Modern Golf.” He had hopes of landing a job as a club professional.

When he decided the club pro thing wasn’t working out, he hit the mini-tour circuit only a couple of years after learning to play.

Still, he remains out of the limelight. Perhaps it’s because his victory in the 1983 U.S. Open, when he defeated Tom Watson in a rain-interrupted final round at Oakmont, ended on a Monday when many golf fans were at work and couldn’t watch.

His two other major titles came in 1981 and ’83 in the PGA championships, which has the lowest profile of the four major championships.

Despite battling a herniated disk in his neck, Nelson won three times in 1998--his first full season on the senior tour--and twice in 1999.

In 1998, he entered the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera having finished first or second in four of his previous seven tournaments, but the neck injury flared up and he withdrew.

The next year, he pulled out of the Senior Classic in Newport Beach for the same reason. During that time, Nelson also was mixing in four or five events each year on the PGA Tour.

These days, Nelson dedicates himself to a strict fitness and nutrition regimen and is avoiding activities that trigger problems in his neck and back.

“This is the healthiest I’ve been since I’ve been out here,” Nelson said. “Most of the injuries I’ve had, if I was working in an office or something like that, it wouldn’t even slow me down. But any kind of little thing can affect your golf swing.”

Realizing that streaks don’t last long in golf, especially on the senior tour, Nelson hopes to ride his as long as he can. He wants to win the money title again, but there is something higher on his list of desires.

While Nelson has finished second in senior tour majors five times in 12 tries, including runner-up finishes in the Tradition and the Senior PGA Championship last year, a senior tour major title has eluded him.

Much like the spotlight.

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Toshiba Classic

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Newport Beach Country Club.

* TV: Today, 2 p.m. (delayed), PAX; Saturday and Sunday, 3-5 p.m., CNBC.

* Tickets: $18 for tournament rounds today-Sunday; $50 for a weeklong grounds pass good through Sunday; $100 for a season clubhouse badge good for tournament and clubhouse admission all week. Seniors 60 and older pay $9 on Friday. Available at the gate, by phone at (949) 515-4840, or on Internet at

https://www.toshibaseniorclassic.com.