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Frank Ivan Joseph Nobilo (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.
Nobilo and his wife, Selena, married in 1998. He has a daughter, former CNN journalist Bianca Nobilo, who also speaks Italian and Croatian, 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. Frank Nobilo was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to golf, in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours.
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 Florida. The injury required 30 stitches, and affected his play afterwards.
Nobilo played for the International Team in each of the first three (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.
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."
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.
| 1 | 27 Apr 1997 | Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic | −14 (69-69-69-67=274) | Playoff | Brad Faxon |
PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)
| 1 | 1997 | Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic | Brad Faxon | Won with par on first extra hole |
| 1 | 14 Aug 1988 | PLM Open | −10 (63-68-71-68=270) | 1 stroke | Howard Clark |
| 2 | 15 Sep 1991 | Trophée Lancôme | −13 (65-68-69-65=267) | 1 stroke | Ian Baker-Finch, Peter Fowler, David Gilford, Jamie Spence |
| 3 | 7 Mar 1993 | Turespaña Open Mediterrania | −9 (71-69-67-72=279) | 1 stroke | Gordon Brand Jnr, David Feherty |
| 4 | 2 Jul 1995 | BMW International Open | −16 (67-69-69-67=272) | 2 strokes | Bernhard Langer, Jarmo Sandelin |
| 5 | 2 Jun 1996 | Deutsche Bank Open TPC of Europe | −18 (65-69-72-64=270) | 1 stroke | Colin Montgomerie |
| 1 | 7 Dec 1997 | Andersen Consulting Hong Kong Open | −17 (67-66-66-68=267) | 5 strokes | Kang Wook-soon |
| 1 | 26 Mar 1994 | Sampoerna Indonesia Open | −15 (69-67-68-69=273) | 3 strokes | Jerry Smith |
Asia Golf Circuit playoff record (0–1)
| 1 | 1994 | Benson & Hedges Malaysian Open | Periasamy Gunasegaran, Joakim Haeggman | Haeggman won with par on eighth extra hole Nobilo eliminated by par on sixth hole |
| 1 | 26 Sep 1982 | Reschs Pilsner New South Wales PGA Championship | −13 (72-74-67-66=279) | 1 stroke | Lyndsay Stephen |
| 2 | 31 Dec 1985 (1986 season) | Nissan-Mobil New Zealand PGA Championship | −8 (72-67-70-71=280) | 2 strokes | Brett Ogle |
| 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 |
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
| 2 |
| 5 |
| 9 |
| 5 |
| The Players Championship | CUT | T60 | CUT | T63 | T71 | CUT |
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
| WGC-Match Play | |
| WGC-Championship | |
| WGC-Invitational | 38 |
Professional
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