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Frank Nobilo

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Frank Nobilo
Personal information
Full nameFrank Ivan Joseph Nobilo
Born (1960-05-14) 14 May 1960 (age 64)
Auckland, New Zealand
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Sporting nationality New Zealand
ResidenceAuckland, New Zealand
ChildrenBianca Nobilo
Career
Turned professional1979
Former tour(s)PGA Tour
European Tour
PGA Tour of Australasia
Professional wins14
Highest ranking21 (6 July 1997)[1]
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour1
European Tour5
Asian Tour1
PGA Tour of Australasia2
Other5
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament4th: 1996
PGA ChampionshipT8: 1996
U.S. OpenT9: 1994
The Open ChampionshipT10: 1997
Achievements and awards
Companion of the New
Zealand Order of Merit		1998

Frank Ivan Joseph Nobilo CNZM (born 14 May 1960) is a New Zealand former professional golfer.

Nobilo had a successful playing career, winning 14 pro tournaments around the world. He was at his peak during the mid-1990s when he also produced strong finishes in all four major championships.

Since his 2003 retirement, Nobilo has worked as a television announcer for golf events.

Personal life

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Nobilo was born in Auckland, of Italian and Croatian descent, and is the great-grandson of an Italian pirate.[2] At birth, his right leg was shorter than his left, causing him ongoing back problems. He was educated at St Peter's College in Auckland where he was persuaded to play golf by schoolmates (Chris Treen and Mark Lewis). Nobilo preferred to play Rugby league for Glenora over Rugby Union for St Peter's, which was "a bone of contention" with the school, and with his parents.

I got a bit of grief because I preferred league over rugby then and I was a bit more of a rebel. I used to catch the train to and from school and it took about 30–40 minutes. My mum said it drove her crazy because I missed it often and my parents were living in Glen Eden and I would end up in Henderson and they'd have to come and collect me.[3]

Nobilo and his wife, Selena, married in 1998. He has a daughter, former CNN journalist Bianca Nobilo, who also speaks Italian and Croatian,[4] from a previous marriage. Nobilo works as an ambassador for The House of Nobilo, one of New Zealand's leading wineries and founded by one of his relatives Nikola Nobilo.[5] Frank Nobilo was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to golf, in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours.[6]

Career

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In 1978, Nobilo won the New Zealand Amateur at 18, the second-youngest winner of this title. He turned professional in November 1979. His first professional win came in 1982 at the New South Wales PGA Championship on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Nobilo joined the European Tour in 1985 as a full-time player, having played in selected events in 1982 and 1983. He recorded his first win on the Tour in the 1988 PLM Open (not to be confused with the KLM Open). Nobilo subsequently won four other European Tour events and finished inside the top 50 on the Order of Merit every season from 1988 to 1996, with a best of 14th place in 1993.

After strong performances in all the majors, including a 4th-place finish in the Masters Tournament and a tie for 8th in the PGA Championship, Nobilo left Europe at the end of 1996 and joined the United States–based PGA Tour for the following season. He won the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic during his rookie season, which proved to be his only win on that tour. He has featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

One week after his marriage to Selena in 1998, Nobilo was struck above the left eye by an errant tee shot at the Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Central Florida. The injury required 30 stitches, and affected his play afterwards.

Nobilo played for the International Team in each of the first three Presidents Cups (1994, 1996, 1998). He contributed significantly to the international appeal of the event when in 1998 and paired with fellow kiwi Greg Turner he holed a 70-foot putt on the final green to defeat the American pairing. On 2 October 2008, International Presidents Cup team captain Greg Norman announced that Frank Nobilo would serve as his assistant captain for the 2009 Presidents Cup 6–11 October 2009 at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco.[7]

On 9 October 2007, it was reported that Nobilo had announced he would be coming out of retirement, and attempt to gain a card for the U.S. PGA Tour through qualifying school. However, in a statement issued on the Golf Channel's website, Nobilo denied the report: "I have not, nor did I have any intention of entering this years PGA Tour Qualifying school."[8]

Television work

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Upon retiring from tournament golf in 2003, Nobilo joined the Golf Channel for studio coverage. He has been a key member of the Live From team at the major championships. From 2012 to 2014, he occasionally filled in for Peter Jacobsen on NBC's golf coverage (NBC and Golf Channel are corporate siblings).

In 2015, Nobilo joined CBS's golf coverage, replacing Peter Oosterhuis. Like Oosterhuis did, he worked only the cable coverage of about half of CBS's events, while working on the network coverage of the other half, including the Masters and PGA Championship. He remained on Live From on Golf Channel but will no longer be allowed to fill in on NBC. Nobilo made his CBS debut at the 2015 Phoenix Open.

He was also a commentator in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour and EA Sports PGA Tour video games, released in 2015 and 2023, respectively.

Amateur wins

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Professional wins (14)

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PGA Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 27 Apr 1997 Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic −14 (69-69-69-67=274) Playoff United States Brad Faxon

PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 1997 Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic United States Brad Faxon Won with par on first extra hole

European Tour wins (5)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 14 Aug 1988 PLM Open −10 (63-68-71-68=270) 1 stroke England Howard Clark
2 15 Sep 1991 Trophée Lancôme −13 (65-68-69-65=267) 1 stroke Australia Ian Baker-Finch, Australia Peter Fowler,
England David Gilford, England Jamie Spence
3 7 Mar 1993 Turespaña Open Mediterrania −9 (71-69-67-72=279) 1 stroke Scotland Gordon Brand Jnr, Northern Ireland David Feherty
4 2 Jul 1995 BMW International Open −16 (67-69-69-67=272) 2 strokes Germany Bernhard Langer, Sweden Jarmo Sandelin
5 2 Jun 1996 Deutsche Bank Open TPC of Europe −18 (65-69-72-64=270) 1 stroke Scotland Colin Montgomerie

Asian PGA Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 7 Dec 1997 Andersen Consulting Hong Kong Open −17 (67-66-66-68=267) 5 strokes South Korea Kang Wook-soon

Asia Golf Circuit wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 26 Mar 1994 Sampoerna Indonesia Open −15 (69-67-68-69=273) 3 strokes United States Jerry Smith

Asia Golf Circuit playoff record (0–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 1994 Benson & Hedges Malaysian Open Malaysia Periasamy Gunasegaran, Sweden Joakim Haeggman Haeggman won with par on eighth extra hole
Nobilo eliminated by par on sixth hole

PGA Tour of Australia wins (2)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 26 Sep 1982 Reschs Pilsner New South Wales PGA Championship −13 (72-74-67-66=279) 1 stroke Australia Lyndsay Stephen
2 31 Dec 1985
(1986 season) 		Nissan-Mobil New Zealand PGA Championship −8 (72-67-70-71=280) 2 strokes Australia Brett Ogle

Other wins (4)

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Results in major championships

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Tournament 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Masters Tournament CUT 4 46 CUT
U.S. Open T9 T10 T13 T36 T40 CUT
The Open Championship T59 T16 T73 T51 T11 T68 T27 T10 CUT T18
PGA Championship T33 T22 T47 CUT T8 T29 CUT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

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Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 1 1 1 4 2
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 2 3 6 5
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 1 4 10 9
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 2 7 5
Totals 0 0 0 1 5 10 27 21
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 9 (1986 Open Championship – 1994 PGA)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (five times)

Results in The Players Championship

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Tournament 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
The Players Championship CUT T60 CUT T63 T71 CUT
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 1999
Match Play
Championship
Invitational 38
  Did not play

Team appearances

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Amateur

Professional

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 27 1997 Ending 6 Jul 1997" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Four long shots who are in with a chance". The Independent. 17 July 1997. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  3. ^ Wynne Gray, "Q & A Frank Nobilo", New Zealand Herald, 12 November 2011 (retrieved 17 November 2011)
  4. ^ "Bianca Nobilo | CNN Anchor and Correspondent". CNN. 9 May 2023. Archived from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023. Bianca Nobilo is a CNN anchor and correspondent based in London. She is the co-host of CNN Newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo. … Bianca speaks Italian and Croatian.
  5. ^ "Professional Golfer Frank Nobilo Signs on as House of Nobilo Brand Ambassador". Business Wire. 4 May 2005. Retrieved 16 July 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 1998". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Nobilo Joins Norman's Int'l Team". Golf Digest. 2 October 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  8. ^ "Golf Channel's Nobilo Denies Return". Golf Channel. 9 October 2007.
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