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PNC FATHER/SON CHALLENGEDecember 13, 2012Larry NelsonJosh NelsonORLANDO, FLORIDA DAVE SENKO: Larry and Josh, thanks for joining us. Larry, you come in as I guess two‑time defending champion. Been a few years, but. LARRY NELSON: I had good partners. DAVE SENKO: Why don't you get us started. Just talk about the special event. I know you've played and Josh and Drew. How special is that to have an event like this on the schedule? LARRY NELSON: I think I could probably echo every father who is here this week: it's the most fun, most exciting, most rewarding event that we play all year. So to be able to be out here with those guys and watch them compete‑‑ I mean, this has been a long period of time that we've been able to do this. So to watch them compete and have to make a putt, see the excitement when they do and the disappointment when they don't, they kind of know what we go through. Even though both of them have kind of played professionally a little bit. This is really just a great format and just a fun week? Q. Josh, how special is it to play with your dad, but also to tee it up with many of the greats of the game, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and people like that? JOSH NELSON: It's a treat, of course, to come and do what we've watched them do our whole lives. Now we're here and we get this opportunity because of their accomplishments. I think that's really what every son here is so grateful for, that opportunity. I know a few of the guys have accomplished some things on their own, but not many of us. We have played competitively by the average person's standards and most of these sons are very good golfers, but not many of us have done much on our own. So it's fun to come and compete on the big stage or what feels like a big stage to us. We love it. We relish it. Every year we were hoping to hear that they would get a sponsor, and we're just really thankful for PNC stepping up and that IMG stuck with it and brought it back. DAVE SENKO: How many times have you played in this now? JOSH NELSON: Let's see, Drew has played two more than I have, and this will be No.15, is that right? So this would be my seventh and he played eight times, I think. LARRY NELSON: Yeah. DAVE SENKO: Was there much nervousness playing on TV when you were younger playing in this? JOSH NELSON: The first time I played would have been the fourth year and it was still at Windsor. I remember I was okay the whole round until we got to 18. First time in my life I had seen the box seating around and right behind the flag is the big NBC camera. I think we had about 100 yards, and my ball went about 60 right in the water. That's where you're glad you have a Hall of Fame father that isn't so concerned about... Now I don't think I think about it. It helps to have experience in this event. Once you've kind of figured out the process, the system of this team golf, you kind of feel like you know how to do it. I feel like we've had rounds where the best we could shoot was 63 when I first would play. I know we shot a pair of 60s the last time we played and didn't even feel like we got everything we could have. LARRY NELSON: But they grew up with Nicklaus and Palmer and Irwin and Trevino and Floyd, so for them to come out it's almost like old home week basically. I don't think they ever were kind of in awe of any of those guys, which is really kind of nice when you think about the greats of the game and their sons and their daughters or whatever grew up in this atmosphere, that it's just so much fun to kind of get together. Almost like one big family. Q. Josh, what is your background if golf now? JOSH NELSON: You know, I actually have more of a background in golf since the last time we were here than I did prior. I did not play college golf and did not play a lot in my 20s. I turned professional after we won in 2007 and started playing a little bit. I had a couple surgeries just due to injuries. I qualified for Canadian Tour in 2010, played a little bit, but then had to have an ACL surgery. So I played just a very short stint. Felt like I was playing well, but due to injuries I haven't played much in the last two years at all. Being back in tournament golf is new again. DAVE SENKO: Questions. Q. You were talking about maybe being a little intimidated by the fans. Did it ever go through your mind that if I'm nervous about standing over a shot like this, how did my dad do it in U.S. Opens and PGA Championships? JOSH NELSON: You know, I think we all are impressed with what our dad's have done, the putts they have played under pressure, the swings they've made under pressure. I think what's unique about this for the sons is we're thrown out into it here, meaning we didn't earn our way through the ranks to get to the big stage; whereas all they guys did. I know he played a year on the mini tours and then he went through Q‑School, and then it was about time to Monday qualify, and then it was making cuts, and then Top 10s, and then it was the winner's circle. He had his moments of opportunities to win and then didn't and then broke through. I think for us, that's what's interesting or why we get so excited to be here. We don't feel that, and then all of a sudden we're on network television on as big of a stage that we can imagine or as many of us will play. I know Steve Irwin played in the U.S. Open recently. Dave Junior played on TOUR, and couple of the ‑‑ I know that Nicklaus‑‑ LARRY NELSON: Gary. JOSH NELSON: Gary played on TOUR. But most of us haven't played past‑‑ you know, I could say I was two time junior club champion and that's about it. (Laughter.) LARRY NELSON: There was a lot times that people had asked me a lot what was the most nervous I've ever been on the golf course or over a putt or anything like that. I go back to when Josh was six years old and his brother was eight years old. We used to play over at Disney and they had a father‑child tournament there. The hard thing was that I had to putt for both. It was side by side but it was two different scores, his score and his brother's score. I told him the hardest thing I ever had to do, I made a ten‑footer for Drew and I had a six‑footer for Josh. He was six years old. I knew if I missed that had putt he was going to cry. That's the most pressure I ever had over a six‑foot putt was trying to make it for Josh to tie. So we've been in pressure. Dads want to see their children do well. Nobody wants to see their children do poorly. So we get just as excited when they hit a good shot as we ever did when we hit a good shot. It just multiplies everything that we have in a competitive way here this week. Q. I needed to ask you or wanted to ask about the Ryder Cup thing. I know you've been getting a bunch of this stuff, and I apologize. Obviously came out today with Tom. Your name got a lot of run. A lot of your peers were in support of you. A lot of the past Ryder Cup captains went to bat. Curious your emotions about the whole thing and sort of being drug through this again. LARRY NELSON:  That's good. Drug through it is probably a good term. You know, it's one of those things I was really flattered, honestly flattered by the number of people, the emails, the texts, just every place I went someone would say, We really hope you get the Ryder Cup this year. A lot of them say it's been the worst thing in golf, the fact that you haven't been a Ryder Cup captain. See I've hears that so much. Well, since '95 basically. But this time it did seem like‑‑ the other time was when Tom Lehman was named captain. I was thrown into the mix and seemed like that was being kicked around a little bit. This time it was kicked around a lot more. There was a possibility. I thought at one time there was at least a 50/50 chance that I would be named captain. Then not until the last probably three, four, five days did I find that that's probably not going to happen. So we went through the whole emotion of yes, this would be great; looks like it might happen, to, no, it's not going to happen. The PGA made a good decision in going older. To me that's a very positive step for the Ryder Cup for the captaincy. I think some good has come out of this in that regard. I'm certainly disappointed. Not devastated, but disappointed that I wasn't named captain. So I think that's pretty much it. I've talked to the president of the PGA couple days ago. Yesterday he called. The conversation went very well. I told him to me it was a shame that they're picking someone twice when there are other people that are certainly qualified to do it. Like I say, it's an honor. It's not something that you necessarily earn. There are I think little qualifications or whatever, but you get four guys in a room and they pick the guy. So it's an honor and that's pretty much it. Q. Larry, perhaps good news. Today at the news conference Ted Bishop said, quote, the book is not closed on Larry Nelson. I just wanted to know what you think of that. And also, would you entertain being a captain in '16 if they asked you? LARRY NELSON: Yeah. I'd like them put it in writing in a contract that's irrevocable. (Laughter.) It's one of those things. I heard that in '95 and it didn't happen in '97. I was over in Japan when the captain was named. He said the same thing to me on the telephone. I said, You know, I've been told that before and it didn't work out. I would always love to have the opportunity. I have no ill feelings towards the PGA for the selection they made personally, but I feel it's such an honor. Again, it is an honor, and it seems sad to me that they would bestow it on the same person twice when there are people that are eligible. Hale Irwin and Mark O'Meara are two people that come off the top of my head. Anyway, that's kind of where I am. Q. (No microphone.) LARRY NELSON: Oh, I would be, but I certainly wouldn't be excited about it until I got the invitation or got the ‑‑ because they change over. No matter what he says, there will be four new guys. No, he actually may be gone, too. Started the think the vice president was maybe one of the four, but he'll be gone by the time that thing comes. I will certainly talk to him, but I have never in my life been a schmoozer. That's just not my style. You earn it or you don't. They will or won't. I just can't go that way. Q. Maybe there is a silver lining here. Now that they're going older, they can do it again. Watson to a lot of people makes sense in Scotland because of his success there maybe you make more success in America. So maybe there is a silver lining. LARRY NELSON: Maybe I'll move to Minnesota. (Laughter.) I'll go up there and apply for a job at Hazelton or whatever it is. I think it does make sense. He will carry a lot of ‑‑ like you said, there will a lot of fans over there from Scotland with him being the Ryder Cup captain. So I can see a positive in that regard. I would see a much more of a positive if he was actually playing. He might have been one of my picks. Made me captain I might have picked him to be on the team. But anyway it's one of those things that‑‑ you know, the captain, I think the captain is important. It's almost like the captain can do wrong but he can't do right. The team wins, the captain loses. So it's really kind of a strange position to be in. He certainly knows the golf course, the areas, and knows the Scottish people. So I think from that regard he's a good choice. I could spend a lot of time in Scotland the next two years. Q. Your story would seemingly resonate so much with the PGA of America. LARRY NELSON: I thought the same thing. Q. You won the tournament twice and the whole Vietnam thing, but also taking up the game so late. They're trying to get people to take up the game. Like what an example obviously. LARRY NELSON: I also had a 9‑0 record the first two Ryder Cups. You can kind of run that in there, too. So, yeah. No, I've always felt that golf is one of the few sports, honestly one of the few sports, where nobody pulls for the underdog. Everybody pulls for Tiger; everybody pulls for Phil. In golf, nobody pulls for the underdog. Football is not necessarily the case. There are a lot of cases where that's not the way it is. But golf is not one of them. I didn't grow up in the high echelons of golf; I didn't play amateur golf; I don't know all these guys who are the heads of the PGA and the USGA or whatever. Let me tell you this: Go check out‑‑ go to the USGA website and try to get the 1983 U.S. Open video. Out of all the U.S. Open videos, try to check out 1983 U.S. Open. You cannot find it. It is lumped in with the '82 video. That ought to tell you something there. Q. (No microphone.) LARRY NELSON: No, unless you go to '82, because they cut so much stuff out of the '83 that they didn't have enough to make a video because of the sponsorship stuff. There is not one. I'm not complaining. This is not a complaining thing. But just to kind of answer your question about should it be a story? Me, personally, yes, it should be a story. Taking up the game late, going to Vietnam, all that, but golf is not that way, so... That doesn't sound like (indiscernible) for me, does it? No? Okay. I don't want to come across that way because I'm very happy with what has happened, so... Q. (No microphone.) LARRY NELSON: What was so interesting was that Ram paid the people that were doing the video I think $30,000 or $50,000 to show the Ram bag and that kind of stuff on that. That's the reason why there wasn't any footage left. They did such a good job of showing the bags and Kevin Pete played Ram, and of course Watson played Ram at that time. And so there were so much footage in there on Ram products that they didn't have enough footage. If you'd watched the video, you wouldn't even have known I won the tournament until I got the trophy on 18. It was really strange. That's its reason why when you go order the video it's lumped in there with '82. Of course Watson won in Pebble Beach in '82, and by the time it gets when he won or chipped it in on 17, nobody cares what's at the end of this one. Anyway, it's just kind of funny. Thought I would just say that. Q. If offered ‑ and of course the offer would have to be made ‑ would you take an assistant captain? LARRY NELSON: No, no. To me, that would be‑‑ I wouldn't say it would be a slap in the face, but it would not be something that‑‑ I think after you're a Ryder Cup captain you might want to go back and do some assistant stuff. But I just‑‑ that just doesn't‑‑ I don't know exactly‑‑ I know there is probably a word for it. Ya'll are writers. Ya'll know what it is. There is probably a word but I don't have that word so I couldn't tell you. Q. Pride? LARRY NELSON: It's not pride as much as it is‑‑ that's a lot work for not‑‑ who was the assistant last Ryder Cup? But you go back in the Ryder Cup history and you say, Who was the Ryder Cup captain and who was the assistant? I think for some people that's fine. I just couldn't do it. After everything that's happened in the last 20 years, that would be a hard thing for me to do. It may be pride. I'm not saying it's not. But certainly that comes before the fall. I just couldn't accept it. Maybe it's just my personality. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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