WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Brett Ogle 

By Rob Willis

A SUPREME ball-striker, long off the tee before it was as crucial to professional success as it is now, a beaming smile and charisma to match, Brett Ogle was one of the stars of Australian golf in the late 1980s and into the ’90s. 

A kid with cocky confidence but the ability to back up the bravado, Ogle quickly burst onto the scene, winning five tournaments in Australia, twice on the US PGA Tour, once in Europe and a couple of times in the South Pacific.

Oh, and he also represented his country at a World Cup where he claimed individual honours in 1992. 

Inside Golf caught up with Ogle for the second of the ‘Where are they now’ series on the 30-year anniversary of arguably his most significant victory – a three-shot win at the 1993 AT&T Invitational at Pebble Beach.  

At an iconic venue and against a high-quality field, upon holing the final putt Ogle kissed Pebble’s famous 18th green in celebration in announcing himself as a legitimate force on the world golfing scene. 

Another win in the Hawaiian Open on the US PGA Tour early in 1994, confirmed Ogle’s status as an elite talent, before the chipping and putting yips slowly eroded his confidence and ultimately brought a premature end to his competitive career.

From there television came calling, commentating golf on Channel 7 then Fox Sports, before becoming the face of retail giant Drummond Golf.   

Now 58, living the quiet life in Melbourne, the tournament wins and golden moments seem a lifetime ago, however Ogle was content to look back, recounting the golfing highlights, while also delving into the reasons that his was a career abruptly cut short.

“I’ve got pictures all around me here in my room. Wins I had, great memories of tournaments, playing in the Masters. All my stuff is here on the wall. They’re good memories,” Ogle said. 

But often what golf gives you, it can just as quickly take away, and after failing to overcome the demons of a twitchy short game, Ogle officially hung up the clubs in 2002 and hasn’t hit a shot in the professional arena since. 

“I finished in 2002, pulled the pin after the Clearwater Classic (in NZ). That was my last tournament,” he recalled. “I was chipping left-handed, putting with the long putter. 

“I thought I can’t do this anymore. I’m not the same player, not the same guy, I’m not enjoying it anymore. I ended up seeing (sports psychologist) Noel Blundell, sports psychologists in America, nobody could come up with an answer,” Ogle explained.   

Not totally lost to the game, Ogle’s big personality and knowledge of tournament golf made him the perfect fit for TV commentary. He signed a deal with Fox Sports in 2002, becoming a regular fixture on the Fox Golf Show, also working the major Australian events as a roving reporter for 7.

After 15 years at Fox, the final 10 in the hosting chair at the Golf Show, Ogle finished up in less-than-ideal circumstances. 

“In 2017 I got cut. But by then the travel was grinding on me. So, the timing was probably alright, just the way it ended wasn’t very pretty,” Ogle said. 

However, throughout the past two decades there has been one constant, that being Drummond Golf, with Ogle enticed by good friend and Royal Melbourne professional Bruce Green to be the ambassador and the face of a company which has now grown to 48 stores nationally. 

“I walked past the pro shop at Royal doing TV for Channel 7 and Bruce said, ‘I’ve got a gig for you’. I said, ‘I’m interested’. I got a call three months later and it’s 20 years together this year.

“Drummond Golf isn’t a company for me – it’s a family. They are wonderful people,” Ogle added. 

Also keeping it in the family, Ogle devotes each morning to working the Foddies warehouse with wife Ricki, son-in-law Luke’s thriving specialty food brand, with Foddies producing a range of Low FODMAP, gluten free and other allergy friendly food.

From lending a hand at Foddies, to adding his presence to corporate or charity golf days, or continuing to promote Drummond, Brett Ogle has plenty still going on but he doesn’t necessarily see it that way. 

“You could say I’m in semi-retirement.”

And while a former star of Australian golf might have quietly slipped into anonymity, he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT BRETT OGLE

• Brett Ogle was born in Paddington, Sydney.

• He was adopted at six weeks of age and was brought up in the town of Goulburn.

• Ogle was a successful hockey player in his early years representing Southern Zone.

• He was also a state champion sprinter at 200m and table tennis player, winning the NSW Schoolboys doubles title in 1978.

• Brett took up the game of golf not long after and reduced his golfing handicap from 32 to one within two years.

• He was the senior and junior club champion at his home club in Goulburn, Tully Park.

• His first big break through was the senior and junior club Champion of Champions event at Federal Golf Club in 1980, a tournament that pitted all of the NSW club champions together.

• Ogle then won the NSW junior in 1984 and 1985 along with the NSW Amateur in 1985 and turning pro in December of that year.