[Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images]
Eight months after a four-marker from Perth by the name of Nick O’Hern completed the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program, 18-year-old Tiger Woods won the first of three straight US Amateur titles.
More than 30 years on and O’Hern is perhaps most famous for being the only player to defeat Woods twice in match play competition.
How he got there – and the breadth of his career since – is testament to the program that is the entry point to a career as a PGA Professional.
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Told to get a job by his parents after completing high school, O’Hern understood that his playing ability was a long way short of his passion to become a professional golfer like his heroes, Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman.
A job opportunity in the pro shop at his local Mount Lawley Golf Club was an obvious first step.
The next, as it was known then, was to become a PGA trainee under Tim Crosby and Craig Duncan at the Marangaroo Golf Course in Perth.
“I always wanted to play the game for a living, but I was never good enough,” O’Hern shares.
“I thought, Well, the next best thing is to become a PGA Professional and maybe teach the game until I learn how to play properly.
“At the time, the handicap limit was four and I was actually off a four handicap, so I made that criteria, just.”
As he obtained his PGA qualifications and did all manner of tasks at Marangaroo, O’Hern dedicated every spare hour to becoming a better player.
He would nominate for shifts that gave him hours to practise either before or after work but he by no means graduated with undeniable playing credentials.
He taught beginners and sold and repaired clubs under Crosby and Duncan at Carramar Golf Course for two years as he slogged it out on the pro-am circuits in WA and Queensland.
It was after finishing dead last at the Spalding Park Open that a firm word from his wife, Alana, sent a then 25-year-old O’Hern on an upward trajectory.
“She said to me, ‘Enough is enough. You can’t just keep playing crap golf and not know what you’re doing. If we’re going to give this thing a go, we really need to make out a plan and figure out how we’re going to do it,’” O’Hern recalls.
Shortly thereafter he would link with coach Neil Simpson and begin working with clinical psychologist Neil McLean. Eighteen months later, he was leading the Australian Open.
By 2005, O’Hern was on the PGA TOUR where he would amass close to $US7.5m in prizemoney and finish tied sixth at the 2006 US Open.
There were also those individual victories over Tiger Woods at the WGC Match Play in 2005 and 2007 but since his playing career has finished, O’Hern has returned to his roots.
In addition to his weekly ‘Talk Birdie To Me’ podcast, authorship of two books and work in television commentary, O’Hern is helping a wide array of golfers to play better, including 2026 NZ PGA champion, American Austen Truslow.
O’Hern is not so focussed on how people swing the golf club, but how well they play the game.
“One thing I found about working at a public course during my traineeship was that it was all about beginners,” O’Hern adds.
“It was never really about good golfers, so I never got into the fine minutiae of the golf swing.
“I had a different coaching route, I guess you could say, and now I’ve almost come full circle where I’m helping golfers again. I don’t really teach people how to swing the golf club, I show them how to play and how to shoot lower scores.
“For a lot of golfers, that can be more helpful than standing on the range and getting into the science of the golf swing for a half-hour lesson.”
With such a diverse career in golf that continues as strong as ever, the now 54-year-old believes the name of the Membership Pathway Program is far more reflective of what the course offers.
“The beauty of the Membership Pathway system is in the wording,” he adds.
“I used to hate that word, the trainee. Pathway is much better because you can go off in whatever tangent you want.
“You can play, you can teach, you can become a manager at a club and a host of other areas that are available.”
