Larry Nelson

Larry Nelson is an American professional golfer, born on September 10, 1947 in Fort Payne, Alabama, who also works as a golf course architect. His family moved to Georgia when he was young; he attended Kennesaw Junior College, and at 20 he was drafted into the army and served as an infantryman in the Vietnam War. He took up golf only after coming home, at the age of 21. He taught himself from Ben Hogan’s instruction book, broke 100 in his first round of 18 holes and, it is said, broke 70 nine months later. He turned professional in 1971 and joined the PGA Tour in 1974.

He won ten times on the PGA Tour, three of them majors: the PGA Championship in 1981 and 1987, and the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1983. He played in the Ryder Cup three times for the United States, in 1979, 1981 and 1987, with a record of nine wins, three losses and one half. After turning 50 he won 19 times on the Champions Tour, six of them in 2000 alone. He entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006, and in 2023 he was chosen as honoree of the year at the Memorial Tournament, the event hosted by Jack Nicklaus.

Alongside his playing career he has taken on golf course design. His official PGA Tour profile says that 12 courses he designed are playable around the world. The Avocet course at Wild Wing Plantation, near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, was designed together with the architect Jeff Brauer. Tomioka Club and Dejima Golf Club in Japan are also credited to Nelson.

Among the courses GoGolf lists, one is his work: Palm Springs Golf & Beach Resort on the Indonesian island of Batam, which can be booked through GoGolf. It is a 27-hole course made up of three nines, Palm, Resort and Island, credited to Nelson and IMG. APLGI, the Indonesian golf course association, attributes the Island and Resort nines to Nelson and the Palm nine to IMG. The first nine holes opened in 1989 as Talvas Golf & Country Club, and the course reached 27 holes in 1995.

Nelson courses you can book on GoGolf

• Palm Springs Golf & Beach Resort (Batam, Indonesia) — credited as a joint design with IMG, opened 1989 (27 holes from 1995)

Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.