Nicholas Simon O'Hern (born 18 October 1971) is an Australian

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. O'Hern has played on both of the world's premier professional golf tours, the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

, and the United States–based

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

. His biggest successes though, have come at home on the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

, where he won the Order of Merit as the leading money winner in 2006.

Personal life

O'Hern was born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. His father was a three-handicap golfer who played baseball for Australia, and he followed him by playing baseball for Western Australia. He was also a talented tennis player, but he chose to concentrate on golf. In 2009, he was named the Number 1 Ticket Holder for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

. O'Hern has a wife and two daughters. He currently resides in Melbourne, Australia. He has published his book "''Tour Mentality: Inside the Mind of a Golf Pro''" in 2016.

Career

O'Hern took up golf at the age of nine and plays left-handed. He turned professional in 1994. He was successful at the European Tour

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

at his first attempt in 1998 and played regularly on the European Tour from 1999 through 2007. He has not won on the European Tour, but had two second-place finishes in 2003, two more in 2004 and one each in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2005, O'Hern began to play quite regularly in the United States. He was not a member of the

, but having reached the top twenty of the

Official World Golf Rankings The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling ...

, he received a substantial number of 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 The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world except Europe as that continent competes against the United States in a similar but ...

, and has since played mostly on that tour. Also in 2006, O'Hern won the

Australian PGA Championship The Australian PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It is the home tournament of the Australian PGA. Since 2000 it has been held in the South East Queensland region. The tournament was part of the OneAsia Tour fro ...

, after he holed out from the greenside bunker for birdie on the fourth hole of a two-man play-off with Peter Lonard. The win brought to an end a seven-year drought for O'Hern, and propelled him to the top of the PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit for 2006. He has won five tournaments in Australia, and continues to play on the PGA Tour of Australasia during the northern hemisphere winter. O'Hern has featured in the top 20 of the

, and he is the only player who has beaten

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...

in matchplay more than once. He is coached by Neil Simpson of the Mount Lawley Golf Club in

, Western Australia. Knee surgery ended O'Hern's 2010 season after 11 events. He started the 2011 season on a medical exemption. O'Hern satisfied his medical exemption in May 2011 with four events remaining to retain his PGA Tour status. On 6 June, O'Hern went through sectional qualifying and secured a spot in the 2011 U.S. Open. O'Hern has never won on the PGA Tour; his best finish is a tie for second at the 2006 Booz Allen Classic.

Ball marking

O'Hern's ball marking has become famous because of its originality. In an ode to his native Australia, O'Hern marks his Titleist Pro V1 with a drawn-on

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

. The marking has been featured in Titleist advertisements.

Amateur wins

*1991 Mount Lawley Championship

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (2)

''*Note: The 1999 Schweppes Coolum Classic was shortened to 54 holes due to rain.'' PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (1–1)

Other wins (4)

*1997 Port Hedland PGA Classic *1998 Port Hedland PGA Classic, South West Open *1999 Nedlands Masters

Playoff record

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 4 (2004 PGA – 2005 Open Championship) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

Team appearances

Alfred Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championsh ...

(representing Australia):

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

(representing Australia):

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

(International team):

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:OHern, Nick Australian male golfers PGA Tour of Australasia golfers European Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers Left-handed golfers Golfers from Perth, Western Australia 1971 births Living people Sportsmen from Western Australia Presidents Cup competitors for International