During Sunday’s final-round broadcast of the 2024 PGA Championship, CBS’s Jim Nantz referenced that Louisville, Kentucky, was the hometown not just of “The Greatest” — Muhammad Ali — but also the great Bobby Nichols, who 60 years earlier won the 1964 PGA Championship at Columbus Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.
That reminded me of a “Where are they now?” type profile I wrote of Nichols for the 2014 PGA Championship preview, the last time the championship was held at Valhalla Golf Club. What a story Nichols shared. Seventy-one years ago, Bobby Nichols had a life-changing experience. He was critically injured in an automobile accident.
Nichols was 16 at the time and a high school football star. He suffered a broken pelvis and laid in a coma for 13 days. When he finally woke up, he was paralyzed from the waist down.
Instead of looking forward to a promised football scholarship at Texas A&M, Nichols had to learn how to walk all over again. He was released after 96 days in the hospital, and while he regained the use of his legs, his football days were over. Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant honored his football scholarship and Nichols discovered he could still play golf. He won 14 times on the PGA Tour, but never again after being struck by lightning while competing in the Western Open in 1975.
He also is one of the last PGA pros from an era when a touring pro wanted to win a big tournament so he could get a prestigious country club job. Nichols parlayed his PGA victory into becoming the pro at Firestone from 1967 to 1980. Here are some of the best excerpts from our conversation of a decade ago.