Former Australian PGA champion Nick O’Hern has confirmed that after 21 years as a professional he has effectively retired from golf.
Speaking exclusively with Australian Golf Digest at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast where is among a host of former champions eager to relive former glories, O’Hern said that any future playing schedule will revolve solely around the PGA Tour of Australasia schedule as he begins the next chapter of his life.
Now ranked 1,436 in the world, O’Hern last played on the US PGA Tour in August 2013 and in 2014 played 16 events on the secondary Web.com Tour before stepping away completely this year, his only competitive golf coming in the past two weeks at the Uniqlo Masters and Emirates Australian Open.
The 44-year-old left-hander finished tied for 18th at Huntingdale before missing the cut at The Australian last week and said that his first year away from a full schedule has been one of the most fulfilling of his life.
“I’m done. I haven’t played golf since the end of last year, I stopped at the end of last year and I guess I’m semi-retired because I’m playing these [tournaments],” O’Hern told Australian Golf Digest after a practice round at the revamped Royal Pines layout.
“I’ll come back to Australia every year and play the events here but throughout the year I’m doing a bit of work for a friend of mine who has got a company in America and I’m going down that road.
“I’m watching my kids grow up and staying home. The last year has been the best year in a long time for me. I wasn’t enjoying the golf the last few years.”
Despite never recording a win on the PGA Tour O’Hern won almost $7.5 million across nine seasons and is perhaps most famously remembered for being the first player to knock over Tiger Woods twice in matchplay competition.
His best finish in a major championship was a tie for sixth at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot won by fellow Australian Geoff Ogilvy and along with his 2006 PGA win won the 1999 Coolum Classic.
The West Australian has already begun working with mobile technology company Mozido in a business development role and says the only golf he expects to play in the near future is on the other side of the corporate pro-am circuit.
“If I get my handicap up it would be all right,” O’Hern said. “I’ll keep my hand in with the golf and I might pop up every now and again but I’m pretty much done playing.
“I work or a company called Mozido, they are a mobile technology company, so as far from golf as you can probably imagine.
“I’m in the business development side so I introduce people that I’ve met over the years to the company and funnily enough playing pro-ams you tend to play with a lot of CEOs so it’s worked out pretty well.”
