WAADGA Player Profiles

Geoff Nicholas – Best of the Best

The name Geoff Nicholas has become synonymous with the legends of golfing greats in Australia and internationally. Geoff is an inspiration to the ever-growing number of amputees turning up at golfing tournaments across the nation and overseas. His dedication and determination, not to mention his achievements, resulted in the Order of Australia being bestowed on him in 2004.

Geoff Nicholas was born on July 1, 1961 at Southport, Queensland, with both legs severely deformed below the knees. He was one of the last victims of Thalidomide. Unable to get adequate medical treatment in Queensland, the Nicholas family moved to Sylvania in Sydney and over the next 12 years Geoff underwent seven operations. By age 13 his right leg had to be amputated and his left had been partially reconstructed using bone from his right leg.

Geoff clearly recalls his first game of golf at age 14, playing with three school friends at the Kareela Public Course in Sydney. The year was 1975 and Geoff admits to having felt more than a little apprehensive as he stood one-legged on the first tee ready to tee off. Not surprisingly, his first swing moved the golf ball 20-odd metres and it took a further five strokes of equal quality before the ball would land on the par-three green. He then six putted to score a 9-over par 12. “I remember thinking at the time that there was definitely room for improvement in my game,” he recalls.

Geoff completed the nine holes, walking the entire distance. The following day he suffered the consequences with blisters and boils on both legs and severe pain. It was these excruciating years that provided Geoff with the hardened resolve to become a golfer of repute. Between 1978 and 1981 Geoff overcame the problems of balance and his gruelling regimen of constant practice started paying dividends.

In 1981 Geoff moved to a single figure handicap of 9, an event which he describes as his biggest thrill. In 1983 he joined the Lakes, a world renowned championship course built around the lakes that formed Sydney's original water supply. Practice paid dividends and between 1984 and 1986 Geoff's handicap shot down from 9 to 4. The determined 22-year-old was immediately drafted into the club's Eric Apperly Shield team, and he became an integral part of the Lakes' success that year. The most notable feature of this improvement was in his short game.

In 1985 Geoff was invited to trial with the Lakes Pennant side and won a place in the 8-man squad, where he won three of his six matches in a relatively undistinguished season. Later that year he qualified for the club championship but was beaten in the first round by a seasoned campaigner. In 1986 he was elevated in the order to number 3 and won four of his next five matches. Later that year Geoff again qualified in the Club Championship for the match play rounds and after a close opening round encounter with former Eric Apperly Shield team mate, Stuart McAskill, Geoff defeated three of Australia's outstanding amateur golfers, Trevor Wood, Roy Vandersluis and Colin Kaye over 36 holes to win the championship.

Geoff won the championship again in 1989 and in between won a number of other major amateur events including the Lakes Bowl, the Cowra Easter Tournament, and the Mollymook amateur. Entering the US Amputee Tournament for the first time in 1989 Geoff had his putter stolen the night before the championship commenced. With a strange putter he was lacking his usual confidence on the greens and finished runner up in the event.

The following year, 1990, marked Geoff’s arrival as an elite performer. Entering as The Lakes club champion, Geoff had an excellent 5-2 record for the pennant season followed by a win in the challenging Bonnie Doon medal. In June he went to Wales and there won the inaugural British Open Amputee Championship by the astonishing margin of 13 shots. Then in August, at the Country Club in North Carolina, Geoff won the US National Amputee Championships by the equally impressive margin of 8 shots.

He followed this with a win in the US National Amputee Match Play Championship thus becoming undisputed world champion in Amputee Golf. In 1998 Geoff became the first amputee golfer to earn his PGA Tour Card. Geoff dominate Amputee & Disabled golf internationally in the 1990’s and 2000’s and earned the reputation as one of the true superstars of golf.

The measure of Geoff Nicholas’ success can be found in his humble, yet inspirational, attitude to the sport - and life. All in all Geoff Nicholas has been crowned World Amputee Golf Champion 12 times in the past 20 years. Us mere mortals can only admire Geoff for his achievements and stand in awe of the guts and determination demonstrated by such a humble, down to earth and likeable man.

Geoff Nicholas Career Highlights