Caps off for Nagel

In the summer of the year I came up to St Andrews University my father and I attended the last day of the 1960 Open hoping to see Peter Thomson repeat his 1955 success.

Instead, it was a fascinating duel in which the rising US super-
star Arnold Palmer lost by one stroke to the Australian journey-man Kel Nagel, who died on Wednesday aged 94.

Kel was always underrated, as shown by the fact that he was elected an honorary member of my club, the R&A, 25 years before he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Yet he had 60 victories on the Australasian tour – twice as many as Peter Thomson in second place – and six further top-ten finishes in Majors, including runner-up in the 1965 US Open.

None of this takes account of the fact that he was a man of indisputable charm, as Thomson inferred when he said: “Of all the people I met in the world of golf, this guy was the best.”

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews