Golf Channel’s Nobilo speaks more sense than most

by John Huggan

Perhaps the only thing the BMW PGA Championship has ever really lacked is a significant American presence. And, sadly, that won’t be too much different this week. Only two of Uncle Sam’s nephews – David Lipsky and Jamie Lovemark – will tee-up in the European Tour’s  ‘flagship’ event.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the Orlando-based Golf Channel from having a significant presence at Wentworth.

Acknowledging the event’s near-elite status on the golfing calendar, Frank Nobilo, one of the broadcaster’s leading commentators, will be on-site to call the action.

A trip to tour headquarters is nothing new for the 56-year old New Zealander, though. For a decade or so before he made the jump to the PGA Tour in 1997, the bearded Kiwi was a familiar face on this side of the Atlantic. A successful one, too; winner of five European Tour events and ten more worldwide, Nobilo played for the international side in three

Presidents Cups and between 1994 and ’97 was a regular contender in Major Championships. Seven times during that period he finished in the top-15 at one or other of the game’s four most important events.

“It wasn’t until I was about 35 that I believed I was good enough to play with the best,” he says. “I played my best golf in 1996, when only Faldo and Norman had a lower stroke average in the Majors.

“I was a grinder. I hated to give away a shot. I was Faldo with a smile. I would see a hard par-4 and grind out a par. (Five-times Open champion) Peter Thomson told me once that if you can par the hard holes and birdie the easy holes, you will score well. That’s simple and logical, but it is so true in the Majors.

“The 1996 US Open at Oakland Hills was my best chance to win one. I was tied for the lead or one shot back and hit a great 3-iron to the 14th green on the last day. But it took a bad bounce and finished 30-feet away. Annoyed, I had a run at the first putt and three-putted. Then I took driver at the next hole – a short par-4 – when I should have played safe and made six.”

As far as the BMW PGA is concerned, Nobilo’s record is a mixed bag. Six missed cuts in his 11 starts is an odd statistic given the quality of his play elsewhere. But in the midst of that mediocrity there was one near-miss.

“The best I ever did at Wentworth was second in 1993, when Bernhard Langer won,” he says. “I nearly didn’t finish though. On the eve of the final round my three-year old daughter slipped in the kitchen. I jumped to break her fall and felt my back go. The next morning I went to the tour physios’ van and they tried to help me. Funnily enough, when I was there Bernhard came in. He was leading the tournament. I’ll never forget – and is why I will always have great respect for him – he told me to ‘give it time. Backs always get better as the day goes on’.  So I did. I ended up scraping round in 72 to finish behind him.

“That was impressive to me. There I was competing against him yet still Bernhard tried to help me out. The caddies weren’t quite so sympathetic. They got wind of my condition and piled into the bookies to bet on Mark James. But he ended up shooting a bad last round, so they didn’t make any money that day.”

Alongside his “partner-in crime”, former PGA Tour player Brandel Chamblee, Nobilo has proved himself just as accomplished off the course, routinely providing thought-provoking and insightful analysis of the professional game at the highest level.

While that shouldn’t be the exception rather than the norm, it is sad-but-true to say in a business rife with mediocrity, blandness and, increasingly, blatant self-promotion, expertise like Nobilo’s can be hard to find. Unlike so many, he has things to say – important things – about what really matters in golf.

“I’m worried about the game,” he says. “I think we have lost our way in so many aspects. Golf is too expensive. The courses are too long. We have equipment that is really designed for the recreational player, but which produces unhealthy distance for the elite players. I remember playing in pro-ams and occasionally being out-driven by an amateur. Now that never happens. Now the pros hit their 5-irons past the amateurs’ drives.

“Bottom line: The professional game has never been more divorced from the amateur game. I think that is extremely dangerous. I’m not one for bifurcation though. One of the beauties of the game should be that everyone can play. But if we went to different equipment we would lose that. The game wouldn’t be what it is supposed to be.”

All is far from doom and gloom, however, and the former Bagshot resident is looking forward to returning to his old stomping ground for the BMW PGA.

“In my day, it was always the flagship event on the European Tour,” he says. “If you discount The Open Championship, it was the biggest week of the year. It still is, even though the end-of-season Tour Championship is a contender for that title. There was always a great field when I played. Seve, Faldo, Langer, Woosnam, Lyle, Olazabal and Monty all played at Wentworth. It was the next-best thing to playing in The Open.

“It also adds to the stature of the event that it is played in the same place every year. Everyone is so familiar with Wentworth from television. It’s a bit like Britain’s Augusta National in that respect. We all have memories of great tournaments at Wentworth. I can recall watching Bob Charles winning the World Match Play there when I was a kid at home in New Zealand. Later, there was Hale Irwin winning there. And I can still see in my mind’s eye Seve crunching two woods onto the last green. It was great stuff.”

For all that, Nobilo shares the frustration of many that the championship does not own the status it deserves across the pond.

“I would like to see more co-operation between the PGA and European Tours,” he says. “There has to be some sort of collusion if golf is to continue to develop. As Europe’s tentacles extend ever further around the globe, a ‘super tour’ is the inevitable result. It needs to happen if the game is going to grow worldwide.

“When the World Golf Championship events began I thought that the PGA should have been one of those. I’m not sure why it isn’t. But it would have been great. Everything fits. The stature of the title. The course. The timing of the event between the Players and the US Open. It was all there. And it would have mended a few fences.

“We all kind of accept that there will always be three of the four Majors in America. But I don’t think there should be three WGCs over there, too. That’s a huge mistake as far as world golf is concerned.”

As for what is required to do well on the Burma Road course, Nobilo, as ever, has his own take.

“You always have to drive well at Wentworth,” he says. “The course played very long in my day even if that isn’t quite the case now. But it is still tough to hit the fairways, many of which are crowned. So the ball had a tendency to kick into the rough. The 9th is difficult in that respect. The fairway tilts left-to-right so if you don’t take on the fence on the left side, the ball will always run off into the right rough.

“The tee-shot on 17 is another gut check. It requires you to stand up and execute. Which is what the great players do. If you look back over the years, guys like Ernie and Seve nearly always hit great drives there. You have to be brave there.

“The first four holes are always key, too. If you can stand on the 5th tee even par you have done well. That hasn’t changed. Nor have the crowds. I have always enjoyed the Wentworth regulars. There has always been a great mix of people out there, from the more affluent to the more blue-collar fan. That’s what makes it such a raucous event.”

Okay, and a final verdict on the BMW PGA?

“Because of the course changes I do think the tournament has lost a little bit of its lustre,” concludes Nobilo. “But it still deserves to be ranked right behind The Open in European terms. And it should be the sixth most important title in the game, right after the four Majors and the Players.”

As usual, spot on.