Fore!

Bobby Nichols is playing golf again, and for the members of Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, that is fabulous news. The man who won the 1964 PGA Championship and served as the club’s longtime and immensely popular head professional had mostly kept his clubs in the closet the past few years, what with arthritis in both of his hands and a pair of artificial hips.

"This game is hard enough when you’re feeling well, and it’s a problem trying to play when you’re not," says Nichols, who will turn 71 this month. "But I still love the game, and I’m feeling good again, so why not get out there and see what you can do?"

Over the course of his rather remarkable and somewhat charmed life, Nichols has done plenty. As a 16-year-old multi-sport athlete growing up in Louisville, Ky., he was severely injured from an automobile joy ride that turned into a tragic accident.

Nichols suffered a broken pelvis, a badly wrenched back, other internal injuries and a concussion that left him unconscious for 13 of the 96 days he spent recovering in a hospital. He also was paralyzed below the waist for approximately the first two weeks, but regained the use of his legs after some intensive therapy.

The wreck ended his promising chances for college football stardom. At six feet, two inches, and 195 pounds, he’d initially been recruited to play football at the University of Kentucky by a young head coach named Paul "Bear" Bryant. But after the concussion, he was told football was out of the question. By the time Nichols was a high school senior, Bryant had left to take over the athletic program at Texas A&M. But one of Nichols’ football coaches had stayed in touch with Bryant, who offered Nichols a scholarship to attend his new school anyway.

"I’d go out and watch them practice and just kinda hang around the team," Nichols says. "It killed me not to be able to play. But coach Bryant also was the athletic director, and he wanted me to play on the golf team, so that’s what I did."

Without football, Nichols, who learned golf as a caddy, decided to devote himself to the kinder, gentler sport. When he graduated from A&M in 1958, he took a job at the Midland (Texas) Country Club and, two years later, several members put up enough money for him to try playing on the PGA Tour.

In 1964, when Nichols won the PGA Championship at the Columbus (Ohio) Country Club, one of the game’s four major events, he prevailed by three shots over Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus with a record score of 271 that held up for 30 years. He won a total of 11 events on the PGA Tour and finished second by a stroke to fellow Kentuckian Gay Brewer at The Masters in 1967.

That same year, at the 1967 Western Open in Chicago, he survived being struck by lightning that also hit Lee Trevino and Jerry Heard. "I had no lingering effects from it," he says, laughing. "My wife always said it just made me more electrifying to her."

Forty years ago, most touring pros needed a second job to stay financially afloat, and Nichols landed a plum assignment in 1967 as the head pro at the prestigious Firestone club in Akron. He also wintered in Naples. When the Firestone was sold in 1980, he was approached by local developers who wanted to build an upscale golf community—Fiddlesticks—on a remote piece of land halfway between Naples and Fort Myers.

Nichols’ first suggestion was to build two courses, the better, he said, "to really be a first-class facility." Now the 600 members of the club, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, can play on two challenging tracks, The Long Mean or the Wee Friendly, and Nichols still plays well enough to occasionally approach shooting his age on either of them.

Nichols retired a few years ago as Fiddlesticks’ head pro, but still owns a gorgeous home off the 10th hole on the Long Mean. The club also honored him five years ago by launching the Nichols Cup Celebrity Pro-Am, regarded by many as the most successful charity golf tournament in the area. Organizers report that the fifth annual edition in February eclipsed the $1 million in funds raised since its inception. All funds from the tournament are earmarked for local charities that support abused children. Many of Nichols’ friends on the PGA Tour are fixtures at the event, and another pal, baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who once owned a Fiddlesticks lot himself, served in his customary role as dinner and auction emcee at this year’s edition.

Nichols admitted that he’s been somewhat flabbergasted and terribly proud about the amount of money the Nichols Cup has raised over the years. "I’ve been around here for a long time, and the people at this club really are something special," he says. "It’s got my name on it, and I’m very proud of that, but I really don’t do any work. I kinda walk around and get in the way. It’s just nice to be connected with it, because all these people have made it a great success. It’s been phenomenal."