Nicholls was born in
Dover,
Kent,
England on July 23, 1878, to Frank Nicholls (1851–1930) and Lois Elizabeth Cordrey (1855–1935). After working in
Cannes, France, the two Nicholls brothers emigrated to the
United States in 1897 and 1898, when golf was growing rapidly in
North America. although Gilbert eventually compiled the better record of the two. Bernard Nicholls, then playing out of the
Boston area, earned the distinction of twice defeating
Harry Vardon, then the top player in the world, head-to-head, on Vardon's 1900 tour of the United States and Canada; those were the only head-to-head matches Vardon lost on that tour. The first match was on February 17, 1900, at
Ormond Beach, Florida, when he soundly defeated the British star 5 and 4; and the second was at the
Brae Burn Country Club near Boston on 13 October 1900 when he won 2 up in a 36-hole match. The Nicholls brothers worked as club professionals and also sold golf clubs under the "Nicholls Brothers" and later "Butchart-Nicholls" brands. As well, he finished as runner-up in two
U.S. Opens, in
1904 and
1907; he had a total of eight U.S. Open finishes in the top-10. He would have had a ninth, a T-5 in 1908, but he was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. In 1913 Vardon again toured North America and, teaming with
Ted Ray, barnstormed the continent prior to the U.S. Open. In the first match of the tour, the two Englishmen met the Nicholls brothers in Philadelphia, and defeated them over 18 holes with a medal score of 68.
Golf club shaft patent On April 26, 1927, Nicholls was awarded United States Patent No. 1,626,476. His invention was intended to improve the construction of wooden golf shafts by laminating different types of wood together; in the case of his invention it was a plurality of
bamboo and
hickory woods. When steel
shafts became available in the early 1930s, Nicholls' invention quickly became obsolete. == Personal life ==