Semi Final 1 | Match 61 | Australia's Greatest Golfer ??

They say that the clothes make the man; for Kel Nagle and Adam Scott it was the jacket that made the moment.

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— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) August 31, 2020

Nagle was so modest that he had to borrow a jacket from close friend Peter Thomson in order to collect the Claret Jug as the 1960 Open champion; Scott left Augusta National Golf Club with a wardrobe item never before placed across Australian shoulders.

Nagle and Scott have been drawn in the first semi-final of our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer, the winner to face off against the winner of the second semi-final between Greg Norman and Ian Baker-Finch.

On the surface Nagle and Scott have little in common.

Their lone major championship triumphs were separated by more than 50 years yet both possessed a sense of style straight from the pages of QC.

Like James Bond’s choice of headwear in Goldfinger, Nagle’s fedora became something of a signature on the golf course. “If you looked across the golf course and saw that hat, you knew it was Kel Nagle,” Bob Shearer told the Courier-Mail upon Nagle’s passing in 2015.

A man more comfortable in a cardigan than a jacket, Nagle arrived at the Centenary Open championship in 1960 with the game necessary to conquer the St Andrews links but ill-equipped for the presentation ceremony that followed.

“I couldn’t get across to my room (in a flat across the road from the 18th green) to get my jacket because of all the people so I collected the trophy in Peter’s jacket,” Nagle said in Bump and Run,

At the Feet of the Masters.

“I didn’t leave the cheque in it though. The 1120 pounds, or something, was in my pocket.”

The jacket that the winner of The Masters doesn’t come with a cheque in the breast pocket; its significance is priceless.

Since Jim Ferrier’s runner-up finish at the 1950 Masters the best Aussie exports had flirted with golf’s most famous piece of fabric without ever feeling its weight.

Tied for ninth in his maiden appearance down Magnolia Drive in 2002, Adam Scott wrestled with Augusta’s idiosyncrasies until he was runner-up in 2011. Two years and a tense playoff with Angel Cabrera later, Scott became the first Australian to be draped in the green jacket.

“It’s something that no one really gets to see, ever, outside the grounds of Augusta,” Scott told PGATOUR.com in 2016.

“You don’t really see the trophy presented ever on TV, either, so everyone associates the Masters with the Green Jacket, so it’s like the trophy.

“One of the buttons was ripped off by a friend of mine because he was just so excited; you’re hugging and he got a hold of it, he’s got his hands on the jacket and one of the buttons came off.”

Renowned for their kindness and generosity, Kel Nagle and Adam Scott have represented their country in a manner that has made them revered the world over.

And they have done it in style.

To cast your vote for who should advance to the final of Australia’s Greatest Golfer visit the PGA Tour of Australasia Facebook page.

Kel Nagle
Career wins: 78
Major wins: 1 (1960 Open Championship)
Australasian Tour wins: 61
Australian Open: Won (1959)
Australian PGA: Won (1949, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1965, 1968)
Round 1 def. Roger Mackay
Round 2 def. Craig Parry
Round 3 def. Minjee Lee
Quarter-Final def. Peter Thomson

Adam Scott
Career wins: 31
Major wins: 1 (2013 Masters)
PGA TOUR wins: 14
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian PGA: Won (2013, 2019)
Australian Open: Won (2009)
Round 1 def. Jarrod Lyle
Round 2 def. Norman von Nida
Round 3 def. Rod Pampling
Quarter-Final def. Karrie Webb