The Dunes Club's Class of '73

You'd never put these two guys together. If the PGA Tour had a Word Association Test, the name Gary McCord would evoke adjectives such as maverick, irreverent, and outspoken. In contrast, Larry Nelson would be characterized by words like quiet, unassuming, and family man. They were both star baseball players in high school, and they were both married before age twenty to their high school sweethearts, but other than that--and their mutual love of golf--there are few similarities between them. They traveled different roads to the PGA Tour, and cut different paths once they got there, but one thread has bound them together through the annals of golf history: they are both proud members of the Dunes Club's Class of 1973.

Born May 23, 1948, young Gary McCord's first experience with golf was at the age of ten, hitting balls with sawed off clubs on a football field near his home in Garden Grove, California. Early on, McCord played baseball, and was a pretty good pitcher, but there was something about the driving range that drew him like nothing else. When his family moved to Riverside, McCord became a range rat, a "grass pilot" as he calls it, at Fairmont Park, a municipal course where he often worked to cover his greens fees. "Golf became a virus I couldn't get rid of," he said. As callouses formed on his hands, he hit balls from dawn to dusk, and seized every opportunity to play as many holes as daylight and the head pro would allow. From his journeys into the Bone Yard, he emerged a standout golfer for Ramona High School, and following graduation, he earned a spot on the golf team at the University of California-Riverside.

College life was not easy for McCord. At the age of 19, he married his 17 year-old girlfriend and soon afterward, his only daughter, Christa, was born. He did laundry and worked at a restaurant to make side money to support his family, all while playing golf and earning a degree in Economics. He paid his own way until finally earning a partial scholarship at the end of his junior year, when he finished second at the NCAA College Division Championship. In 1970–McCord's senior season—the UC-Riverside team returned to compete in the NCAA Championship. This time, he won it.

Like McCord, Larry Nelson grew up playing baseball, but unlike McCord, he didn't pick up a golf club until he was 21 years old. Growing up in Acworth, Georgia, Nelson had designs on playing pro baseball, but as he grew older, he decided that it wasn't in the cards. "As I rated myself, I had a good arm and pretty good speed," he said, "but I just didn't think there was much of a market for a five-foot, eight-inch centerfielder." Nelson was 20 years old and newly married in 1967 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Ford Hood, Texas. That's when everything changed.

While stationed at Fort Hood, Nelson met Ken Hummel, a top amateur who played on the golf team at Miami Dade North Junior College, and the two soon became friends. One day, while caddying for Hummel at Fort Hood's base course, Hummel asked Nelson if he wanted to give golf a try, and Nelson--a natural athlete--birdied a par-5 in his very first round. The two were eventually sent to Vietnam with the 46th Infantry, and when they weren't dodging enemy fire outside Chu Lai, they would talk about what they planned to do once they got back home. All Hummel talked about was golf, planting a seed that bore fruit once Nelson returned to civilian life.

Nelson was in combat a total of 89 days. As he later put it, "long enough to get killed, but not long enough for me to be affected emotionally, as many were who were there longer." After completing his tour of service, he relocated to Marietta, Georgia, in 1969, to work as an illustrator for Lockheed, and recalling his conversations with Hummel, decided to give golf a try. While working five days a week, he went back to school at Kennesaw State Junior College, and in his spare time, he would head over to the local driving range to practice skills he learned in Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. "Golf seemed like a logical thing," he recalled. "I started playing golf, and I got better every day and just fell in love with it." The first time he played a full round, he broke 100. Two short years later, he was filling out his application for PGA Qualifying School.

The PGA's annual qualifying school was a pressure cooker. It was like Grant Waite once told John Feinstein, "You aren't asked to do anything at Q-School as a golfer that you aren't capable of doing, but you have to do it this week. Not next week, not last week, this week. There's no appeal, no way to get a second chance. And there's very little margin for error." In his book Just a Range Ball in a Box of Titleists, McCord encapsulated the experience in one sentence, "You play that week in November for your playing card and you couldn't suck oxygen with Mick Jagger's lips." Q-School was always a grind, and in that sense, 1973 would be no different.

This year, 373 applicants would compete for their shot at the big-time in three local qualifiers at Canyon Crest Country Club in Riverside, California; Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas; and Pinehurst Number 2 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Out of these hopefuls, a total of 78 advanced to the final stage, which began on October 17 at Perdido Bay Country Club in Pensacola, Florida. However, unlike previous years, after finishing the initial 72 holes in Pensacola, competitors faced the unique challenge of having to pack up their gear and make the 700-mile drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to finish with four grueling rounds at the Dunes Club. Only the top 21 finishers in the 144-hole marathon would receive an Approved Tournament Player card.

The Dunes Golf and Beach Club--proud host of this week's ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic,--was, and is, a Grand Strand icon. Like Gary McCord, the club's origins trace back to May of 1948, when local attorney George "Buster" Bryan and his brother James acquired 200 acres at the northern end of Myrtle Beach near Singleton's Swash, and with the help of hotelier James C. Ivey, head golf professional Jimmy D'Angelo, and a group of out-of-state investors, hired renowned golf architect Robert Trent Jones to construct a championship course on the property. Highlighted by its signature 13th hole, a 575-yard par-5 known as "Waterloo," the Dunes Club's 7,028-yard par-72 layout was ranked as one of the 40 toughest in the country. In the years since, it has consistently ranked among America's 100 Best Golf Courses by publications such as Golf Digest, Golf Week, and Golf Magazine.

Wake Forest alum Joe Inman was one of the few pros familiar with the Dunes Club beforehand. Not only had he played the course when it hosted the Carolina’s Amateur, he played there often when his father had been a contractor during construction of the nearby Hilton Hotel. A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Inman finished tied for the low score at the Pinehurst qualifier and after four rounds in Pensacola, found himself in 20th position, thirteen strokes behind leader Dick Mast.

Other players who came down for early peeks at the course included Bob Unger and Bobby Wadkins. Wadkins, who left Pensacola tied for 23rd, wowed locals earlier in the week when he nearly eagled the 13th during his practice round. Bobby was the older brother of Lanny, who finished tenth on the PGA money list as a rookie in 1972. Much was expected of the East Tennessee State grad, but with lots of golf left to be played, much was going to be required.

After four rounds at Perdido Bay, Nelson shared 14th position with Terry Catlett and Spike Kelley at 1-under par, while McCord was at 7-under, tied with Ben Crenshaw for 5th. McCord had been tied with Randy Erskine for the lead after shooting 67 in the second round on Friday, but being in the top spot that early made McCord nervous. With six rounds remaining, he knew anything could happen.

Another Californian, Long Beach native Steve Cook, had been a stroke behind McCord after round two, until a third round 83 sent him plummeting down the leaderboard. "I paid for my lack of experience," Cook said afterward, and the best place he could get that was on the mini-tours. "I'm convinced I can win money," he said, "but I'm equally convinced I need more experience before I'm ready for the big time."

Often referred to as "sandlot golf" or the "hustler's tour," the mini-tours were where aspiring pros gained their golfing manhood. Players found sponsors or dipped into their life savings to gamble on themselves, paying between $4,000 to $7,000 in entry fees for a ten to fifteen percent chance of winning their money back. "We realize that our biggest investment is me," said Bob Unger, who purchased a motor home and set out with his golf clubs, his wife, and a few hundred dollars in his pocket for fifteen months on the mini-tours. Out on the West Coast, McCord was quickly becoming known as the King of the Hustlers. After missing the cut at Q-school the previous two years, McCord had racked up $80,000 over an eighteen month span playing tournaments on the WTGA and NTGA tours. After three wins and two runner-up finishes in 1973, he had repaid all of his loans, bought a new car, and purchased a home for his family in Escondido. "The mini-tour players had a big edge at qualifying school," he would say later. "We were ready to play. We came out flying."

For Larry Nelson, life on the mini-tours didn’t seem all that tough. After all, he was only four years removed from ducking Viet Cong mortar fire in Chu Lai. Nelson had been all set to study chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, but he chucked it for a job as asistant pro at Pinetree Golf Club in Kennesaw, Georgia. His boss, Bert Seagraves, told him he should take a year and try the tour, so he and his wife Gayle packed up their car and headed to Florida to live a Bedouin's life on the NTGA tour. The gamble paid off, and by July 8, 1973, Nelson had picked up a win at the Pacemaker Inns Open and was situated in 5th place on the NTGA money list.

Nearly everyone who made it through Q-School in 1973--players like Mark Hayes, Eddie Pearce, Wally Armstrong, and former national long driving champ Terry Diehl--had been seasoned by their time on the NTGA. In fact, one of the few who hadn’t was Ben Crenshaw, who was teeing it up with the big-boys at Oakmont in the '73 U.S. Open while the mini-tour nomads toiled away at the NTGA event in Largo, Florida. A native of Austin, Texas, Crenshaw built his golfing muscle in the junior program at Austin Country Club, jockeying for king of the golfing hill against the likes of 1992 U.S. Open champion, Tom Kite. A pupil of the legendary Harvey Penick, Crenshaw won an unprecedented three NCAA Division 1 golf titles at the University of Texas, and while he hadn't played on the hustler's tour, he was about to win a lot of respect from the pros that week in Myrtle Beach.

Steve Cook, who wound up missing his card by twelve strokes that weekend, was among those impressed by Crenshaw. "He's in another league," he told Doug Ives later. "That Myrtle Beach course was the second toughest I ever played, yet he took it apart." Despite battling high winds in Wednesday's first round, Crenshaw finished birdie-birdie-eagle, draining a a fifteen footer at the 18th (then a par-5) to finish at 5-under-par for the day. On a day when only two other players broke par--McCord and Diehl both shot 71--Crenshaw's 67 put him four strokes ahead of McCord and five in front of Dick Mast and a 26 year-old optometrist from Wewoka, Oklahoma, named Gil Morgan. "From the first moment I stepped on it, I knew it was my kind of course," said Crenshaw. "It was magnificent; it just kept me charged up the whole way." Crenshaw continued his hot streak with an even par 72 on Thursday and a 2-under 70 on Friday. Then, after shooting 38 on the opening nine on Saturday, he reeled off four consecutive birdies after the turn and finished with a final round of 68 for a twelve shot win over Morgan, who ended his week in Myrtle Beach exactly where he started it--alone in second place.

McCord continued to play well, coming in with rounds of 72-72 to finish tied for 3rd with first half leader Dick Mast. Joe Inman made a crucial 10-footer for par at the 7th on Friday to keep his round from going over the cliff and went on to finish 73-72 over the final two rounds to finish T-6 with Randy Erskine and Mark Hayes. Bob Unger, who was T-32 when he rode his RV into Myrtle Beach, went 1-over for the week and wound up in a five-way tie for 9th, but the Cinderella Story of the week belonged to a young pro from Fullerton, California named Jimmy Blanks. Mired in 60th position after four rounds at Perdido Bay, Blanks refused to give up. After a blustery 74 got him back in the hunt, he tied Crenshaw's tournament-low round with a 67 on Thursday, then finished 76-73 to make the cut on the number.

Bobby Wadkins, who started the week hoping to walk in the footsteps of his younger brother Lanny, began the final round tied with Ken Ellsworth, who edged out McCord to win the local qualifier at Canyon Crest back in September. On the bubble, and needing a 73 to get his card, Wadkins blew sky high on Saturday, shooting a 10-over 82 to miss the cut by nine. Ellsworth shot 74 and missed by a single stroke.

The last player to get his card that week was Nelson, who walked onto the 18th tee box at 4-over on the day, knowing he was close to the cut line. After striping his drive 260 yards down the middle of the fairway, he now had a decision to make. He was 230 yards from the front of the green, but there was a lake between his ball and the hole. "I remember thinking 'if I go for this green in two and knock it in the water, I'll never forgive myself, but if I lay it up on the green and make par and miss the cut...well, I did the best I could." He chose the latter option and hit two 8-iron shots, the second of which landed in the middle of the green, and from there, he two-putted for par to make the cut on the number.

After joining the tour in 1974, Nelson never looked back. For the first five years, he played well enough to stay on tour without returning to Q-school. His career took a significant turn in 1979, when he picked up his first win at the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic subsequently went on to finish second to Tom Watson on the PGA Money List that year. He achieved a total of ten career wins on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: the 1981 PGA Championship, the 1983 U.S. Open, and another PGA Championship in 1987. He played on three Ryder Cup teams, in 1979, 1981, and 1983, amassing a record of 9-3-1. So clutch was Nelson in international competition that Tom Watson once remarked, "If I could pick any golfer to play in a must-win Ryder Cup match, it would be Larry Nelson."

After turning 50, Nelson transitioned to the Champions Tour, where he accumulated an impressive 19 wins. His passion for golf extended beyond competition, as he ventured into the golf course design business, when he partnered with Jeff Brauer to design the Avocet Course at Wild Wing Plantation near Myrtle Beach. In addition to his design work, Nelson created the LagRx Swing Trainer, a tool aimed at helping golfers condition themselves and improve their muscle memory. In recognition of his contributions to the game, he was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006 and in 2011 was honored with the PGA Distinguished Service Medal, which is awarded by the PGA of America to "outstanding individuals who display leadership and humanitarian qualities including integrity, sportsmanship, and enthusiasm for the game of golf."

Gary McCord doesn't have vivid memories of Q-School. He remembers hitting 1,000 balls a day to prepare for his shot at the tour, and not being able to sleep for two weeks prior to playing "144 holes of sheer terror" on pure adrenaline. McCord's path after Q-School veered down a different path than Nelson's. In 400 tour events, his top performances were second-place finishes at the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1975 and 1977. He also won the statistical category of Fewest Putts one year. There were no wins, no major championships, or Ryder Cups, but there's nothing particularly wrong with that. McCord's most important contribution to the PGA Tour came through his work on the PGA Policy Board, where he was the brains behind the idea of an All-Exempt Tour. He also came up with an idea to spice up competition on tour by dividing players up into leagues, but that idea never made it out of the board room. One that did, however, was when he convinced Golf Magazine editor George Peper to run a spread featuring five PGA pros--Payne Stewart, Rex Caldwell, Keith Fergus, Greg Norman, and Peter Jacobsen--posing in their underwear to convience the world that golfers are not dull.

McCord went back to Q-School in 1982 and played decent, though unspectacular, golf until a chance plane ride before the 1986 Memorial Tournament led to his debut as a golf analyst. This opportunity launched a 33-year broadcasting career with CBS Sports, during which he became a fan favorite known not only for his tour knowledge, but also for his outspokenness, irreverence, and a litany of "McCord-isms" that might result in a shot being called a "Hormel," a "Darth Vader," or a "Rosanne." Perhaps one of the more notable occurrences in his broadcast career was when he was banished from calling the Masters Tournament in 1994 after commenting that the greens were "bikini waxed" and that there were "body bags" behind the 17th green. As a result, he was unable to call the '95 Masters won by his Q-School classmate Ben Crenshaw the following year.

McCord has authored two books, Just a Range Ball in a Box of Titleists, and Golfing for Dummies, and even made a foray into the motion picture industry serving as a consultant and making a cameo appearance in the movie "Tin Cup." In 1999, McCord tried his hand at the Champion's Tour and recorded two wins, including the Ingersoll-Rand Tour Championship held at the Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach that November. He continued to broadcast golf tournaments until 2020, but his involvement in the game of golf has not stopped. He is partners with Peter Kostis in the Kostis-McCord Learning Centers and the two can be heard on their podcast, "Kostis and McCord: Off Their Rockers." He also co-hosts a weekly show on SIRIUS XM with David Feherty called "The Dry Heave." And finally, just last year, he was inducted into the Southern California Golf Hall of Fame.

They say golf is a game of relationships. It's not just about the individual player's skill and performance, but also about the relationships they build with other people in the game, whether it's other players, course staff, or fans. You always remember the guys with you in the trenches, the guys you sweat with and shed tears with. With all of life’s twists and turns, it's funny sometimes how things circle back around and come together again. If you’re in the game long enough, they often will. When Nelson won his final tournament, the 1988 Atlanta Classic, McCord was on the mic calling the action at the 16th green. When McCord won the 1999 Tour Championship--at the very course where they won their tour cards 26 years earlier--he won it by a single stroke over none other than Larry Nelson.

Yes, Larry Nelson and Gary McCord were two different people. They led two different lives, and their journeys in golf had different GPS coordinates, but there will always be something that binds them together in the annals of golf history. For Nelson, McCord, and 19 other golfers, that bond was forged at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. They will forever be members of the Dunes Club's Class of '73.