Frank Bernard "Ben" Nicholls (19 April 1877 – 3 November 1924) was an American
professional golfer and
golf course designer
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
of English birth. He compiled an outstanding record in a golf career that included five top-10 finishes in the
U.S. Open and one T10 finish in the
Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
.
In 1900, during
Harry Vardon
Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the ...
's exhibition tour, Nicholls did what no other golfer in North America could accomplish—beat Harry Vardon. Nicholls defeated the legendary British golfer in two separate matches in resounding fashion.
Early life
Nicholls was born in
Dover,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
He was the son of Frank Nicholls (1851–1930) and Lois Elizabeth Cordrey (1855–1935).
Nicholls married Minnie Sharp on 16 May 1898 at St. George's Church in
Deal, Kent, England. Prior to leaving England he worked at an athletic goods store in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and was almost a daily visitor to the
Royal Liverpool Golf Club
The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of the Duke of ...
links at
Hoylake
Hoylake is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the north west of the Wirral Peninsula, near West Kirby and where the River Dee meets the Irish Sea. Historically part of Cheshire, the Domesday ...
, county of
Cheshire. In his days at Hoylake he became good friends with fellow English golfers
John Ball, Jr. – the great amateur player – and
Herbert Tweedie who would later become a golf course architect.
Golf career
Early golf career
![Bernard Nicholls 1877-1924](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Bernard_Nicholls_1877-1924.PNG)
At the age of 17, Nicholls – who was called "Ben" by those who knew him – was hired to design a golf course in France and by 1899 was the head professional at the
Philadelphia Country Club
Philadelphia Country Club is a private country club located in the Gladwyne suburb of Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It has 27 holes of regulation golf including one 18-hole championship course, a nine-hole course, an ...
. On 13 July 1905 he played in the first professional golf tournament ever played on a public links golf course in the United States when he competed in an Open Tournament at the
Van Cortlandt Park
Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-lar ...
course. Nicholls and
Willie Anderson finished joint second five shots behind
Isaac Mackie
Isaac S. Mackie (23 September 1880 – 22 June 1963) was a Scottish-American professional golfer who played in the late 19th and early 20th century. He apprenticed as a club maker under George Forrester. Following his brother Jack—who had emig ...
.
He worked at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club in 1912–13 and was at Wilmington Country Club with his younger brother
Gilbert Nicholls in 1914. In 1915 he took a position at LuLu Country Club in
Glenside, Pennsylvania
Glenside is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Cheltenham Township and Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It borders Northwest Philadelphia. The population was 7,737 at the 2020 census on a land area of ...
, and worked there until late 1916. When he registered for the draft during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
on 9 September 1918 he was working at the Charlotte Country Club in
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
.
Golf course architecture
Nicholls stated on 20 February 1916, "In the year 1894, at the age of 17, I was called to France to lay out the first golf course in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, which was but a miniature affair on an island situated in the
Seine. In connection with this work I became acquainted with the Viscomte
eon
Eon or Eons may refer to: Time
* Aeon, an indefinite long period of time
* Eon (geology), a division of the geologic time scale
Arts and entertainment
Fictional characters
* Eon, in the 2007 film '' Ben 10: Race Against Time''
* Eon, in the ...
de Janze, one of the oldest leaders of golf in the district of Paris and the man who is responsible for the excellent course at La Boulie ... as well as several others." Viscomte Leon de Janze was the founder of the Societe de Sport de Puteaux in 1896. Nicholls would go on to build another course at
Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie. in the French eastern frontier.
There, Nicholls said he met Monsier le Docteur Brachie, a leading physician and "multimillionaire of the place". Brachie said, "I want a golf course in Aix-les-Basin. Far up on the mountain side I have a piece of land. After breakfast we will take the mules and look over this property with a view to building a course there". Nicholls mentioned that difficulties were encountered in viewing the land due to the fact that it was heavily wooded. "I saw some beautiful olive and fig trees, but more important, I also saw 60 husky Italian laborers equipped and ready to work. After threading our way through this mountainous woodland and taking another look at the 60 huskies, I promised to give Monsier Le Docteur a golf course in six weeks", said Nicholls. Brachie retorted, "Nicholls, if you can do that the Bank of France is open to you. Moreover, I will have
King Leopold of the Belgians and
King George of
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
present for the grand opening".
Building Spain's second golf course
In Nicholls' memoirs, written in 1916, he stated that he built Spain's second golf course on the Island of Toxa, belonging to Spain and situated in the
Bay of Arousa, some 35 miles from
Vigo
Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...
, which Nicholls added, "boasts the second finest harbor in the world. It is said that it is capable of accommodating the combined navies of the world. It was by royal command of his majesty
King Alphonso that I undertook the work".
Matches against Harry Vardon
Nicholls compiled results in the
U.S. Open that were superb. He was very consistent in his play from 1897 through 1907, finishing in the top 10 on six occasions. Nicholls had a respectable T10 finish in the
1909 Open Championship
The 1909 Open Championship was the 49th Open Championship, held 10–11 June at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in Deal, Kent, England. J.H. Taylor won the Championship for the fourth time, six strokes ahead of runners-up Tom Ball and James B ...
held 10–11 June at
Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in Deal, Kent, England. One major feather in the cap of Nicholls is that he was the only player to beat
Harry Vardon
Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the ...
, the famous British master golfer, on Vardon's 1900 exhibition tour to points across the U.S. and Canada. In fact, Nicholls beat Vardon twice.
On 17 February 1900, at
Ormond, Florida
Ormond Beach is a city in central Florida in Volusia County. The population was 43,080 at the 2020 census. Ormond Beach lies directly north of Daytona Beach and is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL Metropolitan ...
, Nicholls soundly defeated Vardon 5 and 4.
His second victory over Vardon was on 13 October 1900 at
Brae Burn Country Club
Brae Burn Country Club is a golf course located in West Newton, Massachusetts. Designed by Donald Ross, Brae Burn has hosted seven USGA Championships, including the 1919 U.S. Open, and 1928 U.S. Amateur. Brae Burn is most noted for its diabolica ...
, West Newton, Massachusetts, when he won 2 up in a 36-hole match.
Family
His wife, Minnie Sharp Nicholls (born 1876), died in 1939. Nicholls had eight siblings: brothers Gilbert, William and Alfred, and sisters Florence, Anne, Clara, Ethel and Blanche. He had two children of his own, son Norman Bernard Nicholls (1909–1985) and daughter Doris Lillian Nicholls (1899–1990).
His younger brother,
Gilbert Nicholls, was also a very fine player.
Death
Bernard Nicholls died at Jefferson Hospital in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, on 3 November 1924 due to
septic meningitis. Interment was at
Northwood Cemetery.
Results in major championships
''Note: Nicholls never played in the
Masters Tournament, founded in 1934, nor the
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...
.''
CUT = Missed the half-way cut
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
"T" = Tied for a place
Yellow background for top-10
Sources:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, Bernard
English male golfers
American male golfers
Golf course architects
Sportspeople from Dover, Kent
Deaths from sepsis
Deaths from meningitis
Burials at Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia
Infectious disease deaths in Pennsylvania
Neurological disease deaths in Pennsylvania
1877 births
1924 deaths