Robert Herman Nichols (born April 14, 1936) is an American professional golfer, best known for winning the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Early years

Born in April 1936 and raised in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, Nichols attended St. Xavier High School. While in high school, Nichols and several other youths were involved in an automobile accident resulting from a joy ride. He suffered serious injuries including a broken pelvis, concussion, back and internal injuries, and was hospitalized 96 days. His legs were also paralyzed for about two weeks, but he was able to regain full use of his legs after intensive physical therapy. Nichols later played on the Aggies golf team at the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas (later renamed Texas A&M University) in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

Pro career

Nichols began playing on the

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 ...

in 1960 and recorded 12 victories, one of which, the PGA National Team Championship, was not fully recognized until 2012. He was a member of the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

team in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, and his best year on tour was 1974 when he won twice, earned $124,747 and finished 14th on the money list. Nichols, Jerry Heard, and Lee Trevino were struck by lightning at the

Western Open The Western Open was a professional golf tournament in the United States, for most of its history an event on the PGA Tour. The tournament's founding in 1899 actually pre-dated the start of the Tour, which is generally dated from 1916, the ye ...

on Friday, June 27,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. All three men came back to play professional golf. Unfortunately Nichols – who was 39 at the time and still playing consistently well – as the PGA Tour's Media Guide noted several years later "has not played with the same effectiveness since" eaning after the strike His results on tour after mid-1975 until he joined what was then called the Senior Tour in 1986 bear that out. While Trevino won many more times on the PGA Tour after being hit by lightning (including a major championship) and Heard also won again on tour in 1978, Nichols never did. The closest he came to another PGA Tour win was a team event played in 1976 with Gay Brewer, the 1976 Walt Disney World National Team Championship. The team of Nichols and Brewer lost in a playoff to the team of Woody Blackburn and

Billy Kratzert William August Kratzert III (born June 29, 1952) is an American professional golfer and sportscaster, who has played on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Early life Kratzert was born in Quantico, Virginia when his father was in the s ...

. He has had 12 holes-in-one in his professional career. The 1964 PGA Championship was played at the Columbus Country Club in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. Nichols won with a 271 total, three shots ahead of runners-up

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in ...

and defending champion

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...

, playing in his hometown. This was a record low score for the PGA Championship and it stood for 30 years, until broken by

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean former professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-1 ...

's 269 in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. Nichols was the first wire-to-wire winner since the PGA Championship switched format from

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

stroke play Stroke play is a scoring system in the sport of golf. In the regular form of stroke play, also known as medal play, the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In a regular stroke play competition, the winner is the ...

in 1958.Year by Year History of the PGA Championship
/ref> He came close to winning a second

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

at the Masters in

, finishing second to his lifelong friend, Gay Brewer. After turning 50 in 1986, Nichols played on the Senior PGA Tour, now the Champions Tour. He had numerous top-10 finishes but only one victory – the Southwestern Bell Classic in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, when he defeated Orville Moody on the third hole of a playoff. Bobby Nichols Golf Course is a 9-hole municipal course that is part of Waverly Park in Louisville, southwest of downtown. () The back tees are set at with a rating of 72.0 and a

slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a Line (mathematics), line is a number that describes the direction (geometry), direction of the line on a plane (geometry), plane. Often denoted by the letter ''m'', slope is calculated as the ratio of t ...

of 130.

Professional wins (15)

PGA Tour wins (12)

PGA Tour playoff record (2–3)

Senior PGA Tour wins (1)

Senior PGA Tour playoff record (1–1)

Other senior wins (2)

*1986 Showdown Classic (with Curt Byrum) *2007

Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf The Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour Champions. From 2014 to 2019, it was played at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, on the par-3 Top of the Rock course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and the ...

- Demaret Division (with Butch Baird)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

''Note: Nichols never played in

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

.''
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 23 (1967 Masters – 1975 Masters) *Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (1962 U.S. Open – 1962 PGA)

U.S. national team appearances

Professional *

(winners)

References

External links

*
Bobby Nichols Golf Course
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Bobby American male golfers Texas A&M Aggies men's golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Winners of men's major golf championships Ryder Cup competitors for the United States Golfers from Louisville, Kentucky St. Xavier High School (Louisville) alumni 1936 births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen