TRANSCRIPT | Nick Flanagan, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4 - PGA of Australia

TRANSCRIPT | Nick Flanagan, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4


Nick Flanagan, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4

Q.  (No microphone.)

NICK FLANAGAN:  I mean, if somebody told me I was going to finish third at the start of the day, I probably would have taken it, to be honest with you.  To put myself in a good spot there with a few holes to come, you know, I’m pretty gutted. 

But at the same time it was one of those weeks where I haven’t done something like this in a while, probably since this event last year, really.  So I’m ‑‑ yeah, I’m pretty pumped, but at the same time definitely a little disappointed I couldn’t ‑‑ just that one shot really kind of cost me.

Q.  Thirteen, mate, mentioned yesterday you just didn’t have a feel for the bunkers.  Those fairway bunkers seem to ‑‑ was the sand heavy or deeper?

NICK FLANAGAN:  I don’t know what’s going on.  My bad shot this week has been a bit heavy, and then I got in the fairway bunkers.  That last one I hit, obviously I blocked it.  I was trying to just hit it on the front edge.  That was the first one I’ve actually hit ball first, so that’s something to look at in the future.  It was a foot from going over that bunker, I just kind of hit it a little high on the face off the tee and that’s ‑‑ I had a lot of good things happen, a lot of good breaks, so it just is what it is.

Q.  It’s good to have the juices flowing again, isn’t it?  Final day playing ‑‑

NICK FLANAGAN:  Yeah, for sure.  It’s my best ever finish in ‑‑ well, as a pro anyway in a European Tour event.  My wife and I really need it at the moment, so it’s pretty good.

Q.  How big is it from that perspective?  You’ve got a child coming, and just from a financial and confidence perspective.  You look like you get pretty emotional thinking about it.

NICK FLANAGAN:  Give me a second.

Q.  Sorry, mate.  Is that happy tears?  You know what I mean?

Q.  It was that sort of week for you, wasn’t it, Nick?  Just a really sort of emotional week?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Give me a second.

Q.  Take your time, it’s all good.

NICK FLANAGAN:  I think I’m going to get myself here in a sec.

Yeah, it’s been ‑‑ it’s been a tough few months.  I thought I was going to do well there in Europe, at European Q‑School.  That was tough not to get through there.  Yeah, it’s huge.  I haven’t felt ‑‑ like I haven’t been able to play a stress‑free round of golf.

Q.  Is it so emotional because of the past few months or because of the past 10 years basically?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Yeah, I mean, a bit of everything.  Like I said, I haven’t been able to really play a stress‑free round of golf, kind of wanting to make money.  And obviously with the baby on the way, this is huge for us.  Over Christmas I’ll actually feel like I can sit down on the couch for a couple weeks and actually relax and not think about where the next check’s coming from, at least for two or three weeks at least, so that’s nice.  That’s kind of why I was getting a little emotional there for a second.

But yeah, obviously that’s huge for now.  You know, I’ve been talking about coming home and doing a bridging course and doing all that stuff the last couple months.  It’s still possibly in the cards, but it’s like golf just keeps pulling me back in it seems like.  When I’m just about down, I’ll have a good finish.  It’s just golf.

Q.  Have you learned anything constructive this week in terms of the way that you approach tournaments?  Do you think that you might ‑‑ I guess you’ve tried that a lot over the years, but what can you take out of the week that you can grasp onto going forward?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Yeah, I mean, the same thing happened to me last year.  I missed the two cuts, I missed the New South Wales Open and the Australian Open cuts and I was hitting it absolutely horrendous.  Actually felt I was hitting it good this year and then I got here and felt like I didn’t have my swing, my wrist was giving me issues.  Then I think it just all builds up and gets to a point where I pretty much just say F it, let’s go out and just try and enjoy it for a week and see what happens.

I got in the game out there today, which I haven’t done in a long time.  I felt like I could have won the tournament.  If somebody asked me that four days ago, I would have laughed at them.  Just goes to show I know I can do it.  When I get under the pump it seems like, I can win golf tournaments.  And playing one of the best players in the world, yeah, it was a lot of fun playing with Scotty.  I haven’t played with him probably since the Australian Masters as an amateur, so that was a lot of fun to watch what he did today.

Q.  Is that how it sucks you back in, because you play like that and you think I’ve still got it?  Do you know what I mean?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Yeah.  I mean, I hit the ball really good off the tee, it’s about as good as I’ve driven it in a long time.  Just a few shots around the greens this week kind of cost me.  I just wasn’t chipping good off these little kind of grainy fairways.  Without two flubbed chip shots this week, I could have been right there with him coming in. 

Yeah, I mean, obviously Scotty said a couple really nice things to make at the end, that he thinks my game’s in a really good spot and that he was pretty impressed, so it’s pretty nice to hear from him.

Q.  Where can you play next year?  What can you get starts in?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Well, the lady inside just informed me I get into South Africa in a couple weeks.  It’s the same week as the baby’s due, so I’m guessing that’s not going to happen.  I’m ‑‑ yeah, I’ve been away for seven of the last nine weeks, so I don’t think if I went to South Africa for a week when the baby gets born it would be good for the marriage.

Q.  Do you have any Korn Ferry Tour status at all?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Pastchampions.  It doesn’t give me any starts, though.

Q.  With final change for the Challenge, would you go?

NICK FLANAGAN:  Onceagain, it definitely wasn’t in the cards because I just didn’t have the money to do it.  I probably would have only got two or three starts anyway, but I don’t think they have like a re‑ranking system.  It’s different to what they do on the Korn Ferry where if I get a couple of starts out there and just make a couple of cuts and make some money.  


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