Larry Nelson -- Golf's 'Rodney Dangerfield'

[Yoda]

Remember the comedian Rodney Dangerfield and his identifying lament?

"I don't get no respect." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Dangerfield



Well, the same could be said of Larry Nelson.

Last night I caught The Golf Channel's promotional video of their upcoming U. S. Open coverage entitled Memorable Moments Happen At Oakmont. The spot highlighted the following 'memorable moments:'

Hogan Over Snead (1953)

Nicklaus Over Palmer (1962)

Johnny Miller's Round for the Ages (1973)

Ernie Els Playoff Win (1994)

Once again, Larry Nelson (1983) was passed over, just as he was time and again for the Ryder Cup captaincy that was rightfully his. Much has been made of Johnny Miller's 7-under closing 63, but am I the only one who remembers that Larry won his Open at Oakmont with arguably the two greatest finishing rounds in major championship history? In the endless hours of commentary surrounding this year's event, has anybody else heard anything about his incredible feat?

All Larry did in 1983 was go 65-67=132 -- 10-under par on "the toughest test in golf" (TGC's words). And he did it under the intense pressure that is the U. S. Open. With rounds in the 80s commonplace that weekend at Oakmont, his performance remains the record low final 36-holes in U. S. Open history.

Revisit the action here in the Oakmont History Vignettes at the official USGA site: http://www.usopen.com/2007/multimedia/video/oakmont/

But don't look for Larry in the photo identifying his own 'vignette' (as was the case with each of the other nine featured winners). No sir, he's not there. Instead, we see runner-up Tom Watson.

As I said...

No respect.