Long Shots

The ballots are out for this year's World Golf Hall of Fame voting. Three things you should know:

? John Daly is newly eligible, although this isn't the Jim Beam/Marlboro Hall of Fame. Members can't have more ex-wives than major championship trophies.

? Jos� Mar�a Olaz�bal gets a spot on the international ballot. He's sure to make the Hall at some point, but it feels odd to induct a 40-year-old.

? When the results are announced this summer, a threesome who should absolutely get Hall passes-- Hubert Green, Larry Nelson and Lanny Wadkins--may get passed up again.

Nelson's first name might as well be Overlooked, considering how little respect he gets. Nelson won three majors--more than Hall of Famers Tommy Bolt, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Gene Littler and Greg Norman, to name a few--despite not picking up a golf club until he was 21. Unfortunately, Nelson's biggest win, at the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont, occurred on a Monday, dulling the impact. Last year Nelson snagged 55% of the votes. (You get in with 65% or by being the top vote-getter.) Memo to voters: Get it over with and put Nelson in the Hall; then you can resume ignoring the guy and won't have to read these annual rants on his behalf.

Green and Wadkins are runners-up in being underappreciated. With no disrespect to Crenshaw and Kite, Green and Wadkins were much more feared names on the leader boards of their era. Wadkins has 21 wins--more than Crenshaw or Kite--plus the equivalent of three majors: the 1970 U.S. Amateur, the '77 PGA and the '79 Players Championship. He played in 10 team events (two Walker Cups and eight Ryder Cups) over 24 years. That's a hell of a long time to be at the top of any profession, much less golf.

Green is so tough that he overcame a credible final-round death threat to win the '77 U.S. Open and battled back from throat cancer to play on the Champions tour. He won two majors and missed a short putt to win a third, the '78 Masters, after first stepping away because he was distracted by a radio announcer ( Jim Kelly, the future voice of senior golf) in the adjacent broadcast tower.

So who's going to make the Hall this year? If Nelson comes up short, it'll probably be Curtis Strange, who got 50% of the vote last year and is still fresh in voters' minds from his TV career and a dignified but losing turn as Ryder Cup captain. He's Hall-worthy with 17 victories, including back-to-back U.S. Opens, three money titles, a player of the year award and an NCAA championship. A Hall pass for Curtis, in fact, wouldn't be the least bit Strange. Continuing to overlook Green, Nelson and Wadkins would be.