Larry Nelson

Lettered in baseball and basketball in high school and attended Southern Tech for a year before he was drafted and spent two years serving in Vietnam. After his discharge in 1968, he tried school again and also worked as an illustrator at Lockheed. One day during his lunch break in 1969, he drove by a practice range and liked hitting balls so much that he went to work in a golf shop in Kennesaw, Ga. He turned professional six months after that and in 1973, just three years after taking up the game, finished second in the Florida State Open. Later that year he gained his Tour card.
Captured 10 PGA Tour titles, including three majors. Won the 1981 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. Opened with a 70, then shot consecutive 66s for a four-stroke lead after 54 holes. Finished with a 71 and four-stroke victory over Fuzzy Zoeller.
Trailed Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros by one stroke after three rounds of the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont, but fired a closing 67 for a one-stroke win over Watson. At the 1987 PGA Championship at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., he used three different configurations of irons over four days in oppressive heat but still managed to defeat Lanny Wadkins in a playoff.
Full-time member of the PGA Tour from 1974-1997, playing 569 events and making 370 cuts, having 93 top-10 finishes with 11 runner-up finishes. Made his PGA Tour Champions debut at the 1997 Boone Valley Classic, just two days after turning 50. Owns 19 PGA Tour Champions victories. Bestowed with the PGA Distinguished Service Award, the Association's highest annual honor, the evening before competing in the 93rd PGA Championship. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in November 2006.
2013 Notes: Played in 18 events and had made the cut in all of his appearances, recording 4 top-25 finishes best being T-14th at the Mitsubishi Electric.
2014 Notes: Played in just 10 events, fewest since his rookie season in 1997. Finished T-24th at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Teamed with Bruce Fleisher for a second-place finish in the unofficial Legends Division in June's Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf.
2015 Notes: Teamed with Bruce Fleisher to go wire to wire and win in the Legends Division of Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf in April. The pair finished with a 45-hole total of 12-under-par 139, three shots ahead of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Bettered his age for the first time on the PGA Tour Champions when, at age 67, he shot a 6-under-par 66 in the second round of the 3M Championship. Earlier in the season, matched his age for the second time in his career by shooting a 67 on the last day of the Allianz Championship.
2016 Notes: Teamed with Bruce Fleisher to go wire to wire in the Legends Division to win for the second consecutive year at the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf in April.