Kel Nagle

Kel Nagle
Personal information
Full name	Kelvin David George Nagle
Born	21 December 1920 (1920-12-21) North Sydney, Australia
Height	5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m)
Weight	190 lb (86 kg; 14 st)
Nationality	Australia
Career
Turned professional	1946
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour of Australasia European Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	80
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	2
PGA Tour of Australasia	61
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Masters Tournament	T15: 1965
U.S. Open	2nd: 1965
The Open Championship	Won: 1960
PGA Championship	T20: 1965
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame	2007 (member page)

Kelvin David George Nagle (born 21 December 1920) is an Australian professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1960. He won at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975.

Biography

Nagle was born in North Sydney. Although he had won over 30 tournaments in Australia, and had won the Canada Cup for Australia in partnership with five-time Open champion Peter Thomson in 1954 and 1959, Nagle was a shock winner of The Open, as he was 39 years old but had never finished in the top-10 at a major championship before. He beat the rising star of American golf Arnold Palmer into second place, and it was Palmer who deprived him of his title in 1961. Nagle never regained The Open title, but he put together a string of six further top-10 finishes between 1961 and 1969. His best result in a United States major was second in the 1965 U.S. Open, the year after he won the Canadian Open; he lost in an 18-hole playoff to Gary Player. As late as 1970, the year he turned 50, Nagle was ranked among the top ten players in the world on the McCormack's World Golf Rankings, the forerunner of the modern world ranking system.

Nagle won 61 times on the PGA Tour of Australasia, giving him the most wins all-time on that tour, ahead by 30 wins over Greg Norman, who has 31 wins in second place.

Nagle played on the Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour) in the U.S. in the 1980s when he was in his 60s. His best finished were a pair of T-3s: at the 1981 Eureka Federal Savings Classic and the 1982 Peter Jackson Champions.

In July 2007, Nagle was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, and was inducted in November 2007.

Professional wins

Australasian Tour wins (61)

• 1949 (1) Australian PGA Championship
• 1950 (1) WA Open
• 1951 (4) North Coast Open, New South Wales Open, WA Open, ACT Open
• 1952 (3) North Coast Open, WA Open, NSW PGA Championship
• 1953 (3) NSW PGA Championship, Adelaide Advertiser, McWilliams Wines
• 1954 (4) Australian PGA Championship, North Coast Open, Lakes Open, ACT Open
• 1955 (2) North Coast Open, NSW PGA Championship
• 1956 (1) NSW PGA Championship
• 1957 (4) New South Wales Open, New Zealand Open, New Zealand PGA Championship, Lakes Open
• 1958 (5) New Zealand Open, New Zealand PGA Championship, Australian PGA Championship, Lakes Open, Adelaide Advertiser
• 1959 (5) Australian Open, Australian PGA Championship, Queensland Open, NSW PGA Championship, Ampol Tournament (tie)
• 1960 (1) New Zealand PGA Championship
• 1962 (3) New Zealand Open, Victorian PGA Championship, Adelaide Advertiser
• 1964 (2) New Zealand Open, Queensland Open
• 1965 (2) Australian PGA Championship, NSW PGA Championship
• 1966 (2) Wills Masters, West End Tournament (tie)
• 1967 (3) Victorian Open, New Zealand Open, West End Tournament
• 1968 (4) New South Wales Open, New Zealand Open, Australian PGA Championship, West End Tournament
• 1969 (2) New Zealand Open, Victorian Open
• 1970 (1) New Zealand PGA Championship
• 1971 (1) NSW PGA Championship
• 1972 (1) West End Tournament
• 1973 (1) New Zealand PGA Championship
• 1974 (2) New Zealand PGA Championship, West End Tournament
• 1975 (2) New Zealand PGA Championship, South Coast Open
• 1977 (1) Western Australia PGA Championship

PGA Tour wins (2)

• 1960 The Open Championship
• 1964 Canadian Open

Major championship is shown in bold.

Other wins (12)

• 1954 Canada Cup (with Peter Thomson)
• 1959 Canada Cup (with Peter Thomson)
• 1961 French Open, Hong Kong Open, Swiss Open, Irish Hospitals Tournament
• 1962 Bowmaker Tournament
• 1963 Esso Golden Tournament
• 1965 Bowmaker Tournament
• 1967 Esso Golden Tournament
• 1971 Pringle of Scotland
• 1973 Pringle of Scotland

Senior wins (5)

this list may be incomplete

• 1971 PGA Seniors Championship, World Seniors
• 1973 PGA Seniors Championship
• 1975 PGA Seniors Championship, World Seniors

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runner-up
1960	The Open Championship	2 shot lead	−10 (69–67–71–71=278)	1 stroke	Arnold Palmer

Results timeline

Tournament	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
The Masters	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	T19	DNP	DNP	DNP	T19	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
The Masters	CUT	CUT	CUT	T35	T21	T15	CUT	T31	T30	DNP
U.S. Open	DNP	T17	DNP	CUT	CUT	2	T34	T9	T52	CUT
The Open Championship	1	T5	2	4	45	T5	T4	T22	T13	9
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T20	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
The Masters	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	T30	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	T32	T11	T31	T39	CUT	T40	CUT	DNP	CUT	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
The Masters	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour of Australasia wins
• List of men's major championships winning golfers

External links

• World Golf Hall of Fame profile
• Kel Nagle at the PGA Tour of Australasia official site
• Kel Nagle at the European Tour official site
• Kel Nagle at the PGA Tour official site