Nick O’Hern, alongside BMW Ambassador Elvis Smylie at the 2025 BMW Golf Cup National Final at Royal Pines.
GOLF fans will have seen and heard Nick O’Hern during the telecasts of the Crown Australian Open and the BMW Australian PGA Championship.
Many tune into the number one rated golfing podcast Talk Birdie To Me where O’Hern shares the microphone with another former tour player in Mark Allen.
Golfers looking to improve may have purchased an instructional book authored by the leftie from WA or subscribed to O’Hern’s ‘Play Your Best’ video lesson series.
And for those lucky enough to win their way through to the BMW Golf Cup National Final at Royal Pines, it was O’Hern acting as master of ceremonies at the gala presentation dinner and playing alongside Elvis Smylie in an exhibition match, displaying those skills which haven’t left him, despite now being 54 years of age and more than a decade removed from a career as a tournament player.
O’Hern may not be competing on the world stage these days and therefore recognised by the younger brigade, however the older generation would certainly remember him.
But now, as he put it, “in the back nine of life”, O’Hern is content away from the daily grind of tournament golf while embracing his variety of roles in and around golf and the golfing industry.
“I really enjoy doing the TV commentary and the pod and now I do some speaking, corporate outings, things like that,” O’Hern told Inside Golf at Royal Melbourne on the Wednesday prior to the Australian Open getting underway.
“I play one tournament a year, which is next week at the Cathedral Invitational. I’m a member there.
“But the thing I like doing the most is the podcast.”
A podcast pitched at PGA Australia and others some three or four years ago, O’Hern, Allen and radio man Dan Bradley decided to go it alone, with Talk Birdie To Me kicking off in 2023. Since that time it has grown into the most listened to, also watched on YouTube, podcast in Australia.
“Initially we did it from the headquarters across the road, at Sandy Links and the studio there. We are always happy to promote the PGA and Golf Australia,” O’Hern explained.
From there they have moved to where they record the show from the Melbourne offices of golfing company Titleist-FootJoy, who are joined by a long list of sponsors which include PING, Host Plus, The Golf Clearance Outlet, BetR and the watchMynumbers app, a group of supporters who contribute to the podcast’s success.
Nick O’Hern and Mark Allen recording a Talk Birdie To Me podcast from the balcony of the Royal Melbourne clubhouse.
However, perhaps most notable is the partnership with BMW, the giant international automobile brand which has a massive footprint when it comes to golf sponsorship.
The title sponsor of the BMW PGA Championship, the BMW Golf Cup, the largest international amateur tournament in the world, as well as numerous professional golf events around the world, BMW also lends its name and its support to O’Hern and Allen’s popular podcast.
“Wolfgang Buechel, the former CEO and I played a bit of golf, he’s a leftie like me and he said I’m looking for an MC for the National Final (of the BMW Golf Cup). I said ‘absolutely’ and I’ve done it for the last few years,” O’Hern explained how his association with BMW first came about.
And it’s a relationship which has continued under the leadership Vikram Pawah who returned to the position of CEO of BMW Group Australia in September last year.
“With the podcast we were looking for a different sponsor, BMW became involved and they’ve been great,” O’Hern added.
A member of the PGA for 32 years with six tour wins to his credit, someone who competed in Europe, then on the PGA TOUR for 11 years, beating Tiger Woods twice in the World Matchplay championship, O’Hern cast a somewhat envious eye across Royal Melbourne from the upper deck of the clubhouse. And maybe, for a least a fleeting moment, he thought why not one more time.
“I could have played, they have a career money category I can use for two years,” said O’Hern, who unlike Rory McIlroy was happy to name Royal Melbourne as Australia’s best course.
“I would have loved to play this week. And also at Mt Lawley (venue for the 2025 WA Open). I’m from there. Would have loved to play courses like that. But I don’t practice anymore.”
While tournament golf may be a thing of the past, it hasn’t slowed him or stopped O’Hern from remaining firmly entrenched in the sport of golf, as a coach, keynote speaker, TV commentator, author and podcaster, with one of golf’s gentlemen embracing “the back nine of life”.
An amateur standout, winning the NSW Amateur and Australian Medal in 1988, before going down in the final of the 1990 Australian Amateur Championship, Rob Willis turned professional in 1992, playing the Australasian and Asian Tours, with his highlight being his victory in the 1995 Dubai Creek Open and third placing at the European Tour's Dubai Dessert Classic. A former Editor of Golf Australia Magazine, Willis, who ventured away from golf for a period to be the media manager for the NRL's Cronulla Sharks, has been a contributor to PGA Australia's PGA Magazine for over a decade and for Inside Golf since its first edition back in 2005. 
