Every time Perth-born pro golfer Nick O’Hern’s caddy hands him a club during an American PGA Tour event, he takes it from the lefty swinger’s signature white bag, with Fremantle logo proudly emblazoned on it.
In slang here, we’d say O’Hern is “representin’,” an action attributed to charismatic rappers. But O’Hern is more the unassuming type.
“I thought, ‘Why not throw the old anchor on it?’” says O’Hern, while in Greensboro, North Carolina, competing in the Wyndham Championship.
“People on the course see it, try to figure it out and ask me about it. It gives me a chance to talk about Freo footy.”
O’Hern – a former No. 1 Fremantle Dockers ticket holder – actively follows the club through its mobile app and DockerTV video clips on You Tube. O’Hern first came into the Freo fold several years ago when he was introduced to Aaron Sandilands and Matthew Pavlich.
Now, Freo and O’Hern are facing their own brand of under-the-pump finals pressure. O’Hern is competing in the Web.com finals, a four-tournament series in which O’Hern must finish in the top 25 to earn his PGA Tour player’s card for next year.
O’Hern, 41, makes his home in Orlando, Florida with wife Alana and two daughters. He relates his style of play on the links to a couple of Freo footballers. The pair, he admits, is pretty unlikely – Matt de Boer is a fierce tackler and Michael Barlow is a scrappy ball-magnet.
But listen to O’Hern and the similarities show.
“Doing the one-percenters, all the little things really well, that’s where my strengths are,” O’Hern says.
“I play my role. Matt de Boer’s a one-percenter. He seems to know where to be on the ground and at the end of the match, you look at his stats and wonder, ‘How’d he do that?’”
O’Hern identifies with Barlow’s resilience and determination to overcome serious injury and play on.
When O’Hern was 18, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while playing basketball, but opted not to have surgery. Then, in 2010, while squatting to size up a putt, O’Hern tore the meniscus in his left knee. He then had double knee surgery, including a LARS reconstruction.
Just a month after his surgeries, O’Hern winced watching Barlow famously break his leg in a clash against Port Adelaide.
“I saw him trying to stand up afterward and he just collapsed,” O’Hern says. “That’s why it was so impressive to see him come back from that the next year.”
There’s an even more unexpected player Freo fans might compare O’Hern to… Ryan Crowley.
One golfer tagging another is a ludicrous prospect, but O’Hern, uncannily, has been an historical nemesis of international superstar Tiger Woods.
O’Hern should be more famous for winning five Australian tournaments, including the 2006 Australian PGA, and tying for 19th at the Masters and tying for sixth in the US Open that year.
But golf fans worldwide best know him for being the only golfer to eliminate Woods twice in match play. Like deadly set shots at the siren, O’Hern's clutch putts finished Woods in 2005 and 2007 events.
“I just wear (Tiger) down, like Ryan does with opponents,” O’Hern deadpans. “I just bore (Tiger) to death.”
Further examine O’Hern’s backstory and the golfer and his footy club is a natural fit.
“You could certainly say that,” says Neil McLean, the University of Western Australia sport psychologist who has worked with O’Hern. “Neither Freo, nor Nick would ever be described as flamboyant. He’s workmanlike, like Freo, and has been under the radar.”
O’Hern grew up barracking for Swan Districts in the WAFL. The same year the Freo Dockers were established, 1994, O’Hern turned pro. For choosing one of the two WA-based AFL sides, he needn’t have looked beyond his own household.
“Freo were like the little brother and I have two older brothers,” O’Hern says.
“The little brother is always trying to prove himself. I was a late bloomer and got better with perseverance and hard work. Freo is a blue-collar town and the Freo Dockers are a bunch of battlers, a bunch of one-percenters.
“People have a love for that and it’s nice to see their talent being rewarded.”
Other columns by Stateside Docker Gil Griffin:
Gil Griffin's Number One
It began with a Derby
A Tinseltown take on Freo
International stars, local legends
Indigenous Round: What does it all stand for?
Draws best when your partner barracks for the other team
My ‘hardcore’ Freo routine
