Nick O'hern
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Nicholas Simon O’Hern (born 18 October 1971) is an Australian professional golfer.
O’Hern was born in Perth, Western Australia. He is left handed and took up golf at the age of nine. His father was a three-handicap golfer who played baseball for Australia, and Nick played that sport for Western Australia himself. He was also a talented tennis player, but he chose to concentrate on golf and turned professional in 1994.
He was successful at the European Tour Qualifying School at his first attempt in 1998 and has played regularly on the European Tour since 1999. He has not won on the European Tour, but had two seconds in 2003, two more in 2004 and one in 2005 as of June. He has won four tournaments in Australia, and continues to play on the PGA Tour of Australasia in the northern winter.
In 2005, O’Hern began to play quite regularly in the United States. He was not a member of the PGA Tour, but having reached the top twenty of the Official World Golf Rankings, he was able to count on a good number of automatic invitations and sponsors exemptions for PGA Tour events.
In 2006 he became a member of the PGA Tour on the basis of his membership of the International Team at the 2005 Presidents Cup. Also in 2006, O’Hern won the Australian PGA Championship on the fourth hole of a two-man play-off with Peter Lonard. He remarkably chipped in from the greenside bunker for birdie on the 18th hole at the Hyatt Regency Coolum course. This broke a seven year drought of wins for O’Hern, and also won him the Australian Order of Merit for 2006 over Kevin Stadler.
O’Hern has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings, and he is the only player, who has beaten Tiger Woods in matchplay more than once. He is coached by Neil Simpson of the Mt Lawley Golf Club in Perth, Western Australia.
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