He helped guide the fortunes of tennis Hall of Famer Pete Sampras and now former Fitzroy AFL star Brett Stephens has breathed new life into Nick Flanagan’s professional golf career.

On a day where the afternoon groups in the opening round of the ISPS HANDA Super 6 Perth tournament struggled to make inroads on the early leaders, Flanagan’s round of 4-under 68 held up as the equal best of the Australian contingent, Queensland’s Brad Kennedy matching the mark late in the day.

That Flanagan features may not be such a shock for a player who won the 2003 US Amateur and earned ‘battlefield’ promotion to the PGA TOUR courtesy of three wins in the 2007 Nationwide Tour season but injuries and struggles off the course saw him fall to a career low ranking of 1,925 at the end of 2017.

A top-10 finish at the Australian PGA Championship in December moved him back inside the top 1,000 by year’s end and reuniting with Stephens last week at the ISPS HANDA Vic Open has helped to continue his upward trend.

Tied for 10th at 13^th Beach last week, Flanagan arrived at Lake Karrinyup Country Club ranked 776 in the world and feeling as positive about his prospects as he has for the past five years.

“I feel comfortable with my game, but the mental part of things still needs a bit of work,” Flanagan explained.

“I’ve definitely felt good the last week and a half just going out there and competing and not worrying too much about anything technical.

“The stuff with ‘Moose’ (Stephens) has really helped me a lot to kind of get out of that anxiety I used to get when I’m worried about making cheques; is this going to be the good week or is this going to be the bad week? That’s definitely helped.”

Stephens played 133 games for Fitzroy before moving into fitness coaching, spending five years with Sampras and becoming renowned within tennis circles for his theories.

Rather than a sports psychologist, Flanagan describes Stephens as a “life coach” and said that he is in a much better place personally to take advantage of his expertise.

“We worked together about four or five years ago, but I was going through some tough times with my career and a bunch of other things that were just not feeling great about life in general,” said Flanagan, who played with good friend James Nitties (3-under) in the opening round.

“I decided when I was coming back here and knew we were both going to be in Melbourne that I wanted to start the year on a positive note.

“I knew I had been playing well, so it was just a matter of getting it right between the ears.

“It’s worked well the first five rounds I’ve played at home. It’s going to go pear-shaped at some point but hopefully I’ll be able to deal with it a lot better than I have in the past.”

With virtually no status anywhere outside of Australia, a strong week at a tournament tri-sanctioned with the European and Asian tours has the potential to open the door to new opportunities for the 34-year-old.

Planning to play the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship presented by Toowoomba Regional Council, New Zealand Open and New Zealand PGA Championship after Perth, Flanagan says that he is taking a more holistic approach to his schedule in 2019.

“I haven’t thought of what I’m going to do when I get done with these five events,” he explained.

“The goal for the year pretty much is the stuff I’ve been working on with Moose. It’s not just about this next tournament or the next tournament or the next three weeks, whatever it is. Just kind of going out, making sure I take what the golf course gives me and not try to force it and know that when I do get in a situation where I’m in contention that I’ll be ready to go.

“Whether it’s a missed cut here or there or a bunch of top-10s, as long as I’m giving a good effort to every tee shot and every shot into the green, then it feels like it’s going to be a success.”

Sharing a house this week with Nitties and caddie Joel, Flanagan made fajitas on Wednesday night and shouted Joel a Vienetta cake for his birthday, handing the cooking duties over to Nitties prior to Friday’s second round.

“I cooked last night so I’m definitely not cooking tonight,” said Flanagan.

“It’s probably James. James will probably do his famous spaghetti tonight, I imagine. I’m not sure if it’s going to be red meat or turkey.”

West Australian Jason Scrivener and New South Welshman Nick Flanagan are tied for the lead at the ISPS HANDA Vic Open at 14-under par.

After firing 10-under the card in the first round overnight leader, Nick Flanagan put together a steady round of 68 late in the day to maintain his share of the top spot.

“I’m probably happier with today’s round considering it was backing up that 62 and it could have been anything today,” said Flanagan.

“I probably could have been a couple better, but I had my fair share of long putts and good breaks so far the first two days.”

Flanagan’s positive mindset has translated on the scorecard at 13^th Beach Golf Links as he continues his comeback from an injury plagued few years.

“The thing I’m kind of working on at the moment is just really being kind of happy with the effort I’m making on every shot and not worrying about result,” he continued.

“Its cliché, but it works. So my goal is to really get to the end of a round and be happy between the ears with what I’ve done and if it’s a 74 or a 64, it doesn’t really matter, that’s the goal for the weekend.”

Playing in the morning field, Scrivener fired a blemish free 6-under 66 to ensure his name was at the top of the leaderboard.

“It’s been two solid days’ work,” said Scrivener, whose strong form has been evident early this season with three top-10 finishes from just four starts.

“It’s just patience really, I think knowing there’s a lot of birdies out there helps.

“If you try to rush them, you can make mistakes, so just plodding your way around and being smart about it.

“I can’t really fault it really; I played nicely, so I’m looking forward to the weekend.

Eight birdies and two bogeys saw Wade Ormsby to 6-under 66 on the creek course, but it is the positives that he’ll take from his 36-holes of play so far.

“I think you’ve got to look at the positives,” said Ormsby after toughing it out on the last five holes of the creek course.

“It just played a bit tougher towards the end.

“I hit a good shot and went through the back of a green and left myself a little tricky shot; just hit into the part of the green that was very tricky so that too was kind of one of the bogeys that was weak if you know what I mean.

“I had a nice up and down on the last so that definitely made me feel a bit better after the last five holes.

With a strong round of 7-under 65 on day one, Ormsby believes his play is up to scratch on the all-important beach course ahead of the weekend.

“Scoring’s good, but there’s a lot of good players out here, the parameters are getting a lot tighter and guys are getting better all the way through,” continued Ormsby.

“You’ve got to stay on your game.”

Matt Jager and Brad Kennedy are tied for fourth place on 12-under the card.  While Scotsman David Law, France’s Clement Sordet and South Australian Nick Cullen are tied for sixth place on 11-under.

Rounding out the top-10 on 10-under the card is a group seven players including former Vic Open champion Matt Griffin and Victorian favourite Lucas Herbert.

The second round cut was made at 5-under the card with 77 professionals and three amateurs making the third round.

Low scores were the order of the day at 13^th Beach Golf Links but no one went lower than Nick Flanagan.

The New South Welshman has begun his 2019 season in spectacular form, completing his opening round at the ISPS HANDA Vic Open at 10-under 62 after playing the creek course.

While thick fog delayed the start of the tournament for an hour and 10 minutes, it did nothing to delay Flanagan’s game.

Starting on the 10^th tee he reeled off two eagles, eight birdies and two bogeys to sit two shots clear of the chasing pack heading into the second round.

“A couple of putts early kind of dropped and then I just wasn’t trying too hard essentially,” said Flanagan.

“I just had one of those days where everything seemed to kind of go right.

“If I hit a bad shot, it would just miss a bunker and end up in a nice lie, knocked it up close and kind of just kept momentum going.”

A host of injuries forced the former U.S. Amateur Champion out of the game but Flanagan secured status on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia via Qualifying School for 2018 and finished 20^th on the Order of Merit.

In 2019, he can now focus on building a schedule.

“I’ve been playing well for the last two years, I just haven’t been playing enough golf,” continued Flanagan.

“I’m just trying to lower the expectations again and kind of get back to where I was, obviously today it worked.

“It’s not going to work every day this year, but if it keeps working this week, it would be great, If it doesn’t, just keep building on that for the next couple weeks,” said Flanagan, who will go on to play the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth next week.

Rooming with Flanagan for the tournament is James Nitties who began his Vic Open campaign in spectacular fashion from the 10^th tee of the beach course.

Sitting tied for second place at 8-under 64, it was Nitties’ run of nine consecutive birdies from holes 15 – 5 that saw him equal the World Record for most consecutive birdies in a tournament round.

First set by Mark Calcavecchia, the record has been equalled once before by Rayhan Thomas of Dubai.

“I don’t hold any other world records that I know of, so to be a part of one is pretty cool,” said Nitties.

“I had a good chance for that 10th birdie, but I didn’t want to break it.

“It’s such a longstanding record, I wouldn’t do that to Mark, so it’s good to hold it with him,” said Nitties with a cheeky smile.

Congratulating his roommate on his first round, Nitties credited Flanagan’s choice of dinner meal the night before for their combined 18-under score in the first round.

“I was saying before that he cooked us delicious burritos last night, so maybe they’ll be on the menu again tonight.”

Joining Nitties at tied second on the leaderboard are James Anstiss (NZL), Hugo Leon (CHL), Kurt Kitayama (USA), Callum Shinkwin (ENG) and Jason Scrivener who was the only player to record 8-under whilst playing in the afternoon field.

Rounding out the top-10 is a group of seven players at 7-under the card.

The second round of the ISPS HANDA Vic Open tees off at 7am with Nick Flanagan teeing off on the beach course at 1.40pm.

Nick Flanagan has jumpstarted round three of the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open with a hole-in-one at Millbrook Resort.

Monday qualifying into the tournament hosted at The Hills and Millbrook Resort, Flanagan fired rounds of 68, 68 to make the cut on the number.

Out early on Saturday morning, Flanagan got his day off to a great start with a hole-in-one on the 123 metre par-3 2^nd hole using his pitching wedge.

Flanagan is a former US Amateur champion, with six professional wins on his resume, including four on the Web.com Tour, which earned him a ticket into the PGA Tour.

A thumb injury, which required surgery and set him back for a couple of years, and a back injury suffered as a child, hindered his progress on golf’s most high-profile stage and he said last week that he was now trying to resurrect his career at the age of 33.

Flanagan followed up his ace with two more birdies on the front-9, which lifted him to a share of 9th place early in round three.

It was the second hole-in-one at the tournament, although neither was at the 13^th hole at Millbrook Resort where sponsor Hyundai are offering a prize of a Santa Fe SUV as part of their innovative Drive For Good initiative, to be donated to one of three charities, to be voted by the public.

Early rain has given way to calm, mild conditions in Queenstown, with scoring again expected to be low, with Australian Terry Pilkadaris leading the tournament on 15-under the card and teeing off at 12.40pm.