Winning his way onto PGA TOUR is 'good fun,' says Flanagan  PGATOUR.com Correspondent ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Good fun, eh, Nick Flanagan?  Nick Flanagan celebrates as his final putt drops Sunday at the Xerox Classic. (Jim Rogash/WireImage)
Hard to describe final-round 63s any other way, especially given the circumstances surrounding a winning performance that meant so much more than a fat first-place check of $108,000 and a crystal bauble for the trophy case back in New South Wales. That's the lights-out number -- punctuated by a clutch 30-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole -- the talented young Australian pulled out of his black Nike hat at Irondequoit Country Club in the final round of the Xerox Classic on Sunday as he rushed past James Driscoll for an improbable one-shot victory after beginning the round trailing by seven shots. Now subtract three from six. You come up with three, the number of Nationwide Tour triumphs Flanagan owns this season. That means Flanagan, 23, is now a full-fledged member of the PGA TOUR for the stretch run in 2007 as well as the 2008, having earned only the eighth performance promotion in Nationwide Tour history. "A dream come through to come out here and win three," said Flanagan, the 2003 U.S. Amateur champion. Flanagan started dreaming at the finals of the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament in December of 2006. He remembers telling his caddie, Joey Dimiano, who was on loan from Stuart Appleby, at the time that he would bag those three titles straight away. "I said it half-jokingly," Flanagan said sheepishly. Nevertheless, the number still played prominently on Flanagan's mind when he won a four-way playoff for his first victory at the Henrico County Open at the end of April. "We've got a long way to go, but it sure would be handy if I found two more of these," he said. "It would be good fun to earn my TOUR card that way." Good fun, indeed. It required 16 starts, but who is counting when someone calls his shot, even sheepishly? The only irony is Flanagan will have to wait a month to cash in on his new membership because the PGA TOUR's four-tournament FedExCup playoff series begins Thursday. Flanagan flashed a typical Australian no-worries smile when informed of the delay. "This tournament just ended. I don't know what I'm doing yet," he said. "I'm going to sit down over the next few days and figure it all out." The break might come in handy. Flanagan likely used up his supply of spectacular shots Sunday, considering he made an eagle and five birdies without a blemish on his card. Nevertheless, he still needed help from Driscoll, the hard-luck loser who made a sloppy double bogey on the relatively easy par-4 16th. "I wasn't thinking about winning the golf tournament, to be honest," Flanagan said. "I wanted to make as many birdies as I could to get as close as possible. To run him down I had to play as good as I could and get lucky at the end." This marks Flanagan's second Nationwide Tour season and he credited lessons learned in 2006 for giving him the boost he needed this year. He learned how to properly schedule events, practice and do the things necessary to take care of himself for the 10-month grind. That said, he was taken aback when he first arrived with the notion he would sail through his rookie season and be playing on the PGA TOUR in 2007. "I thought it was going to be easy," said Flanagan, who finished 32nd on the 2006 money list. "I played average golf and it took me by surprise how good these players are. There are 30-40 players out here who have enough game for the PGA TOUR." Flanagan understood from that point on average would not get him to where he wanted to go. So he buckled down. "I knew I had to work harder on my game, and I did that," he said. "I think I matured a bit after realizing that." The work paid off, especially at the Henrico, where Flanagan accomplished his first goal, a victory. And then he started freewheeling it. "Things just kept getting better and better after that," he said. Indeed they did. Flanagan came from three shots behind to bag his second victory with a 7-under-par 65 in the final round of the BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs. And he matched that 7-under number again Sunday on the par-70 Irondequoit track. "I don't know if that (the 63) would have happened if I had been playing for my (PGA TOUR) card," he said. "Things might have been different." Now Flanagan has to luxury to freewheel it some more, using the rest of 2007 to set up 2008. He can pick and choose as he pleases from the seven PGA TOUR events open to him. "I want to get some experience so I'm going to play a few, but I won't go nuts," he said. "But I wouldn't mind making some Christmas money. You're not going to stop me from playing for $4 or $5 million a few times." Nah, it sounds like more good fun. |
