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 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 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 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, and has since played mostly on that tour.
Also in 2006, O'Hern won the Australian PGA Championship, after 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 and end a 7 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 a total of 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 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, Peter Thomson and Lewis Freiberg of the Mount Lawley Golf Club in Perth, 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 T2 at the 2006 Booz Allen Classic.
Read more about this topic: Nick O'Hern
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