Nelson was born in Fort Payne, Alabama. He didn't play the game as a child – atypical for a successful professional golfer – but only began to do so at the age of 21 after he returned from military service in Vietnam. Nelson carefully studied Ben Hogan's book ''The Five Fundamentals of Golf'' while learning how to play the game. He soon found that he had a talent for the game, breaking 100 the first time he played and 70 within nine months. He went on to graduate from Kennesaw Junior College in 1970 and turned professional the following year. He qualified for the PGA Tour at 27. His breakthrough year came in 1979 when he won twice and finished second in the money list to Tom Watson.
Nelson was to win ten times on the PGA Tour, of which three, a high proportion, were major championships. His major first was the 1981 PGA Championship which he won by four strokes. In 1983 he was victorious at the U.S. Open coming from seven behind at the half-way point, and scoring an outstanding 132 aggregate for the last 36 holes to beat Tom Watson by one. In 1987 he finished tied with Lanny Wadkins after the regulation 72 holes of PGA Championship, and won the title with a par at the first playoff hole.
Nelson played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1979, 1981, 1987. He also won four tournaments in Japan. Since turning fifty in 1997 Nelson has had a successful Champions Tour career, although he has not won a senior major. He is also active in golf course design. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in April 2006 and will be inducted in October 2006.http://www.wgv.com/media/press_release.php?pr=hof7
Results in major championships
| align="left"|Tournament | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| The Masters | ||||
| U.S. Open | ||||
| The Open Championship | ||||
| PGA Championship |
| align="left"|Tournament | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| The Masters | ||||||||||
| U.S. Open | ||||||||||
| The Open Championship | ||||||||||
| PGA Championship |
| align="left"|Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| The Masters | ||||||||||
| U.S. Open | ||||||||||
| The Open Championship | ||||||||||
| PGA Championship |
| align="left"|Tournament | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| The Masters | |||
| U.S. Open | |||
| The Open Championship | |||
| PGA Championship |
DNP = did not play<br>
DQ = disqualified<br>
WD - withdrew<br>
CUT = missed the half way cut<br>
"T" indicates a tie for a place.<br>
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
PGA Tour wins
*1979 (2) Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic, Western Open
*1980 (1) Atlanta Classic
*1981 (2) Greater Greensboro Open, '''PGA Championship'''
*1983 (1) '''U.S. Open'''
*1984 (1) Walt Disney World Golf Classic
*1987 (2) '''PGA Championship''', Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic
*1988 (1) Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic
Major championships are shown in '''bold'''.
Other regular career wins
*1980 Tokai Classic (Japan Golf Tour)*1983 Dunlop International Open (Japan)
*1988 PGA Grand Slam of Golf (United States - unofficial event)
*1989 Suntory Open (Japan)
*1991 Dunlop Phoenix (Japan)
Champions Tour wins
*1998 American Express Invitational, Pittsburgh Senior Classic, Boone Valley Classic
*1999 GTE Classic, Bruno's Memorial Classic
*2000 Las Vegas Senior Classic, Boone Valley Classic, FleetBoston Classic, Foremost Insurance Championship, Bank One Senior Championship, Vantage Championship
*2001 MasterCard Championship, Royal Caribbean Classic, FleetBoston Classic, Farmers Charity Classic, SBC Championship
*2003 Constellation Energy Classic
*2004 FedEx Kinko's Classic, Administaff Small Business Classic presented by KBR
Other senior career wins
*1999 Chrysler Senior Match Play Challenge
External links
*Profile on the PGA Tour's official site*Golf Stars Online - links to features and profiles
Biography courtesy of the brilliant Wikipedia!
