Before you heard his dulcet tones on TV during the US Open coverage at Pinehurst, James Nitties could seriously play, from star amateur to Nationwide Tour winner. But he also knew how to enjoy the rare moments

It’s hard for James Nitties not to smile when he recalls the night of Sunday, August 5, 2007. The Newcastle-raised tour pro was with his close mates, and fellow Australian golfers, David Lutterus, Stephen Dartnall and Marc Leishman, having spent most of 2007 driving across the US entering Monday qualifying tournaments for the Nationwide Tour and some mini-tour events. That Sunday, the four larrikins were in the town of Moosic in north-eastern Pennsylvania, about 90 minutes’ drive north of Philadelphia and just as far west of New York City. Moosic is only 30 minutes from Long Pond, a town renowned as a NASCAR and IndyCar destination due to its proximity to the iconic Pocono Raceway.

Nitties and co. were sharing a hire car and hotel rooms – two per room if it was cheap and four per room if it was expensive. In Moosic, Nitties and the crew were set to play in a Monday qualifier, with 14 spots up for grabs into the Nationwide Tour’s Northeast Pennsylvania Classic being played later that week at Glenmaura National Golf Club. Only problem was, they had no idea the IndyCar Pennsylvania 500 was on that Sunday. Car-racing fans had swallowed up the accommodation even as far from the speedway as Moosic. The lads hadn’t booked anything, forcing them to hop in the car and start popping into hotels near Long Pond. They drove down the highway, further and further away from town, being told there was no vacancy at each hotel.

“At one point, we offered to pay to sleep in the conference room if they had sleeping bags, but they wouldn’t allow it,” Nitties recalls, laughing. “We finally found a hotel two-and-a-half hours from the course, checked in at 2am, slept for maybe three hours, and drove back to the Monday qualifier.”

All four played well and got into the tournament. Lutterus was co-medallist at five-under-par, with Nitties earning the fourth spot at four-under and Dartnall at three-under. Leishman withdrew but got into the event anyway. Now 17 years later, Nitties cracks a grin remembering that week in Moosic. “Times like that week in Pennsylvania, and all of 2007, they were some of the best days of our lives,” he says.

Nitties, 41, sat down with Australian Golf Digest to share his journey from Newcastle to playing on the PGA Tour and, these days, his love of the TV commentary booth, having just called a major for the first time at the US Open.

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I grew up in Charlestown, 20 minutes from Newcastle, in a family that didn’t have a lot of money, but who loved sport. I played a bunch of different sports growing up, like soccer. I was a fast runner and scored a lot of goals, but as we got in the older age groups and my speed was no longer an advantage, I wasn’t as good [laughs]. When I started to take golf more seriously in my early teens, I realised I was pretty talented. I took up a membership at Charlestown Golf Club. It has a special place in my heart; a fantastic little public course where I learned the game. My parents would drop me off for entire days of playing and practising. The other juniors and I would have chipping competitions for the grand prize of a can of Coke from the pro shop. About 15 years ago, the club gave me a lifetime membership and that meant a lot to me.

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In 2001, when I was 19, I didn’t get selected for the senior team on the New South Wales squad, or the Australian squad. I was bitterly disappointed. So, I played the 2001 Australian Open at The Grand on the Gold Coast with a chip on my shoulder. I was really motivated to play well. I finished tied 22nd and shared low-amateur honours. Stuart Appleby won that Aussie Open. That was satisfying for me, but more importantly, it taught me I was good enough to compete with the pros.

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In 2002, I was selected to train at the Australian Institute of Sport. It was a huge honour, but I still needed some money behind me. I didn’t have any cash growing up, so I sold my golf clubs to get some much-needed funds to support myself in the AIS. I knew that once I was in the program, I would be given a set of golf clubs. I guess you could say I was always a business-minded guy [laughs].

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One of my greatest memories as an amateur was playing for the Asia-Pacific team at the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy, which is an amateur tournament where a European team squares off against an Asia-Pacific team. In 2004, it was held in Rome at Circolo Golf Club. We were staying in a fancy hotel that cost about €1,000 per night. It was so fancy that Hollywood actress Uma Thurman had been there weeks earlier to film scenes from a movie. We all thought we had made it. It was an incredible experience. The European team had Francesco Molinari in it, but we stepped up and won 16½-15½.

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Towards the end of my teens and very early 20s, I became one of the best amateur golfers in the world. But I was truly humbled when I came up against a talented American in Ryan Moore. At the 2004 Sahalee Players Championship, I played lights-out golf to finish the tournament at 11-under-par. Sahalee, in Moore’s home state of Washington, is a tight and difficult golf course and I still lost to him by five shots. I wasn’t discouraged; I looked at the bright side. I could hang with the guy who, that year, won the US Amateur, Western Amateur, US Amateur Public Links and the NCAA individual title [Moore remains one of only five players to have won the US Amateur and NCAA individual title in the same year]. He was the best amateur in the world and I really gave him a run for his money at Sahalee. I knew I was ready to turn pro.

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After I joined the paid ranks, I played mainly in Australia for the next two years, with a few events in Europe and on [what is now] the Korn Ferry Tour. In 2006, I had a weird experience suffering from juvenile arthritis. I was in the US playing qualifying schools and mini-tour events and I felt unwell. That led to a 10-day stint in hospital because the American doctors hadn’t seen juvenile arthritis. Fluid had swelled up in my knees and spine. After that, I had to take six months off to work out in the gym and get my strength and fitness back. I managed to do it and began to play some good golf. Years later, my doctor from that hospital and my doctor in Australia randomly met at a conference and talked about my case. They couldn’t believe the odds of running into each other.

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One of the best chapters of my life was 2007, the year I spent playing mini-tours and Monday qualifiers for what was called the Nationwide Tour at the time. I also was a contestant on “The Big Break” reality TV show on Golf Channel. In 2007, ‘Leish’, ‘Darts’, ‘Luda’ (Lutterus) and I would drive from town to town, bunking in hotels that were $US50 a night, and sometimes one or two of us would sleep on the floor. We’d all pile into a cheap rental car. Any spare money we had, we made sure to have fun. We found restaurants like Golden Corral, a chain where we could get an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner for $8. We’d buy cheap beer at Hooters. There wasn’t any competitive tension among us, at all. No one was trying to outdo the others on the course. We were a pack of Australians who wanted each other to do well, and we wanted to have fun at the same time. If one of us didn’t make it through a Monday qualifier, that guy would caddie in the tournament for one of us who did.

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I finally made it onto the PGA Tour in 2009 after I finished tied second at Q-School. I’d worked so hard to get there and it was a lifetime achievement for me. But I missed my first two cuts as a member, in Hawaii and California. Then, as #golf would have it, I finished tied fourth at the Phoenix Open. Three starts later I tied for sixth at Mayakoba in Mexico. Overall, I had seven top-25s and finished 94th on the FedEx Cup in 2009. I was proud of myself. I also made it into the US Open at Bethpage in 2009. It didn’t really feel like a US Open because it had rained so much and the course was so soft, but I was still playing in a major championship – the only major I played in. In 2010, I missed my first six cuts in a row. Like in 2009, I bounced back and finished tied third at the Puerto Rico Open and tied 20th in the next event. I had another three top-25s that year. Golf is a wild game.

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I guess what I learned about myself on the PGA Tour is that when I finally made it onto the circuit, I was able to enjoy every moment. I’d walk onto a range and see Tiger Woods and think, Wow, this is awesome. I loved playing and competing. I still do. Once I made it to the PGA Tour, I remember feeling grateful for all the people who had helped me get to that stage. My parents drove me to every tournament as a kid, even though they didn’t have the money for me to compete in an expensive sport. Sometimes, my mum would send me $10 or $5 in an envelope if I was away at a tournament – so that I had some money. When I got to the PGA Tour, I was so thrilled to have made it to the top level. I played well for two years. I lost my card in 2010, but in 2011, I won the Midwest Classic on the Nationwide Tour. I ended up finishing 26th on the Nationwide Tour’s moneylist, one spot short of a top-25 promotion back to the PGA Tour. Again, golf is a brutal game.

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Nowadays, the pathway from Australia to America for professional golfers is so different. It’s such a business becoming a pro golfer and the depth of talent in the US is so deep that you need to be among the top five players in Australia to feel like you can compete with the Korn Ferry Tour pros and college kids. On top of that, it’s extremely expensive these days. You could never do what Nick Flanagan, Aron Price, Lutterus, ‘Leish’, ‘Darts’, myself and others did because hotels are so much more expensive, and the exchange rate is horrible. Someone told me recently that for an Australian to travel over to the US and compete for the week at PGA Tour Q-School costs about $20,000 all up. I think the talent pool is shrinking in Australia because it is so expensive to try to make it as a pro if you are not one of the very top prospects who gets into the national squad. Perhaps that’s why we are seeing fewer Australians on the PGA Tour and in the majors these days. If you are good enough to be a tour pro but not quite good enough for the US, you are likely to take the lucrative opportunity to play on tours in Asia and Japan and remain close to Australia.

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In 2014, I was approached to do some commentary work, but I was still trying to play professionally. My status on the Korn Ferry Tour lasted until 2020, right up until the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s when I started to take TV more seriously as a career option to remain in golf. I got involved in broadcasting and filming for the Korn Ferry Tour, and I love doing it. It’s also led to some work with PGA Tour Live productions, and at the recent US Open at Pinehurst, which I called for the world feed that you heard on TV in Australia. I love trying to let my personality shine through. On the Korn Ferry Tour, the broadcasts aren’t where they will be in the future, and I’m excited to be involved in that process.

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The key to good commentary is allowing your experience as a former player, and your personality, to add something to the viewing experience. I always try to enhance the visual shot with something the viewer can’t see, something that isn’t obvious. Sometimes, that’s backing off the mic in a big moment and letting the scene speak for itself. Other times, it’s about analysing the difficulty of the shot for the viewer so they can appreciate how good these players are.

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I’d love to do commentary for a long time, because I want to remain in golf forever. I love this game. In 2019, I matched the world record for consecutive birdies with nine straight at the ISPS Handa Vic Open, a European Tour record. I don’t think I can pull that off anymore, so I’ll stick to commentary. Thanks for listening.

Getty images: Michael Dodge