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 has begun 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 7 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.
