Kel Nagle

Hometown

North Sydney

Australia

Year Inducted

2007

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Dec 21,1920

Date Deceased

Jan 29,2015

Major Championships: 1

Open Championship: 1960

Australasia Tour Wins: 61

1949: Australian PGA Championship
1950: WA Open
1951: North Coast Open, New South Wales Open, WA Open, ACT Open
1952: North Coast Open, WA Open, NSW PGA Championship
1953: NSW PGA Championship, Adelaide Advertiser, McWilliams Wines
1954: Australian PGA Championship, North Coast Open, Lakes Open, ACT Open
1955: North Coast Open, NSW PGA Championship
1956: NSW PGA Championship
1957: New South Wales Open, New Zealand Open, New Zealand PGA Championship, Lakes Open
1958: New Zealand Open, New Zealand PGA Championship, Australian PGA Championship, Lakes Open, Adelaide Advertiser
1959: Australian Open, Australian PGA Championship, Queensland Open, NSW PGA Championship, Ampol Tournament (tie)
1960: New Zealand PGA Championship
1962: New Zealand Open, Victorian PGA Championship, Adelaide Advertiser
1964: New Zealand Open, Queensland Open
1965: Australian PGA Championship, NSW PGA Championship
1966: Wills Masters, West End Tournament (tie)
1967: Victorian Open, New Zealand Open, West End Tournament
1968: New South Wales Open, New Zealand Open, Australian PGA Championship, West End Tournament
1969: New Zealand Open, Victorian Open
1970: New Zealand PGA Championship
1971: NSW PGA Championship
1972: West End Tournament
1973: New Zealand PGA Championship
1974: New Zealand PGA Championship, West End Tournament
1975: New Zealand PGA Championship, South Coast Open
1977: Western Australia PGA Championship

PGA TOUR Wins: 1

1964: Canadian Open

Additional Wins: 15

1954: World Cup
1959: World Cup
1961: French Open, Swiss Open, Hong Kong Open, Irish Hospitals Tournament
1962: Bowmaker
1963: Esso Golden
1965: Bowmaker
1967: Esso Golden
1971: Pringle of Scotland, British Seniors
1973: Pringle of Scotland, British Seniors
1975: British Seniors

One of golf’s quiet men, Kel Nagle’s greatest triumph took place on the game’s grandest stage. The 1960 Open was the championship’s centenary and the occasion of Arnold Palmer’s momentous pilgrimage to St Andrews. But once play began, it was the then 39-year-old Nagle who mastered the Old Course best with a game built on accuracy and precision.

In the final stages, Nagle was leading by one and facing a 10-footer for par on the Road Hole when a tremendous roar went up. Palmer had birdied the 18th, and Nagle now had to make his putt to stay ahead. He did, later calling it “the best putt of my life.” After a good drive on the home hole, his 9-iron approach to three feet – “the best shot of my life” as he put it – sealed the championship.

“Since I was in bushes all the time, and couldn’t control my shots, I decided to shorten my swing,” he said. “I started keeping the ball in play and started playing much better.”

Nagle’s victory was a shock to many, which was understandable. Despite his veteran status, the only two Major Championships he had played previously where the 1952 and 1955 Open Championships. Born in Sydney on December 21, 1920, Nagle had entered the game as a lowly apprentice at age 15 and had his playing aspirations put on hold by a five year stint in the military during World War II. By the time he emerged, he was 25 year old fledgling touring professional with little competitive experience and three young children.

Powerfully built, Nagle began his career as long but wild hitter and a poor putter. But after studying the top American professionals during his first trip to the U.S. in 1951, he decided to transform his game, sacrificing distance for accuracy in the long game as well as shortening his putting stroke to become a wizard of the greens.

“Since I was in bushes all the time, and couldn’t control my shots, I decided to shorten my swing,” he said. “I started keeping the ball in play and started playing much better.” Nagle also made himself a master of getting up and down from within 30 yards of the green, giving him what he believed was “a tournament winning edge over his competitors.”

Encouraged by his close friend and fellow Australian Peter Thomson, Nagle beginning in 1949 would go on to win more than 60 times on the Australasian tours, including the Australian Open, six Australian PGAs, seven New Zealand Opens and seven New Zealand PGAs. He also won 17 times around the world.

Fact

Nagle won 61 times on the PGA Tour of Australasia, giving him the most wins all-time on that tour.

Thomson, who called Nagle “Mr. Accuracy, the Ben Hogan of Australia,” and ranked him one of the dozen best players he ever saw, said Nagle had a natural temperament for tournament golf. “There was absolutely no malice in him, or vice of any kind, and he was always in good humour,” said Thomson.

The pair won the Canada Cup (now the World Cup) in 1954, and again before home crowds on the glassy greens of Royal Melbourne in 1959. Of Nagle’s performance, Sam Snead said, “Kel never hit one bad putt. I’ve never seen putting like that in my life.”

It was the onset of a late prime. After his victory at St Andrews, Nagle won the 1961 French and Swiss Opens, and in 1964, won the Canadian Open, again nipping Palmer. In the Open Championship from 1960 to 1966, he was only out of the top 5 once.

Nagle nearly won a second Major Championship at the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive, where he tied Gary Player after 72 holes before losing the 18-hole playoff 71-74. But he continued winning against younger men, taking the 1969 New Zealand Open, and at age 54, the New Zealand PGA in 1975. He also won the World Seniors in 1971 and 1975, and thrice won the European Seniors.

Throughout, Nagle was considered one of the game’s great gentlemen. Bruce Devlin name his son after Nagle, and Player once said, “I can honestly say I never met anybody in my life that didn’t really like Kel Nagle.”

Kel Nagle was originally inducted through the Veterans category.