Kel Nagle
| Kel Nagle | |
|---|---|
| — Golfer — | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Kelvin David George Nagle |
| Nickname | "The Pymble Crusher" |
| Born |
21 December 1920 North Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 29 January 2015 (aged 94) 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 | 79 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| PGA Tour | 2 |
| PGA Tour of Australasia | 61 |
| Other | 18 |
| 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 AM (21 December 1920 – 29 January 2015) was 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.
Nagle was born in North Sydney.
Because of five-and-a-half years of World War II military service (1939–45), Nagle got a late start on pro golf, as he didn't play any golf between ages 19–24, and turned pro at age 25 (1946). He made up for the lost time by winning at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975. During his early career, he had a long swing and was regarded as the longest hitter on the Australasia tour, as evidenced by the Australian press dubbing him as "the Pymble Crusher". By age 39 (in 1960, when he won The Open Championship), Nagle had shortened his swing and become a straight hitter with what Gary Player described as "the best short game out here".
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. Thomson told Nagle a few weeks prior to the 1960 Open championship that he "had the game" to win and that "you can beat me". 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. Although he never regained The Open title, Kel Nagle had six top-five finishes at the Open between 1960 and 1966 (ages 39 to 45). His best result in a United States major was second in the 1965 U.S. Open—the year after he won the Canadian Open—when he and Gary Player finished the 72-hole tournament in a tie. Nagle lost to Player the next day in an 18-hole playoff, during which Nagle hit a female spectator in the forehead on the fifth hole and was visibly effected to the point that he hit another spectator on the same hole. Player won the playoff by 3 strokes.
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