U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 2003

Nick Flanagan

PETE KOWALSKI: Nick, congratulations on making it to the finals. I'm sure it's a fantastic feeling for you to be in the U.S. Amateur finals, but before we talk about those kind of things and questions about the follow-up of the match, could you give us a little bit of a nutshell on what holes were critical in the match and give us a breakdown of what you hit, that kind of thing.

NICK FLANAGAN: I would have to say the most critical part was probably the 13th hole. I just lost five holes in a row and he hit it in there close. And I got up there with a 6-iron and just hit it and hoped it was going to come down close and got on, sneaked on to the front edge and rolled up to about two foot and I picked it up. So that was a big relief. I think I really needed that at the time.

Q. What was the yardage to the hole?

NICK FLANAGAN: On the par-3?

Q. Yeah.

NICK FLANAGAN: About 170.

Q. Where that pin was, Casey was saying that's a tough pin. I don't know if you know, your ball got up there and it started to roll back after it had stopped.

NICK FLANAGAN: Oh, really.

Q. Did anybody tell you that?

NICK FLANAGAN: No.

Q. But to get it that close, how tough is that pin?

NICK FLANAGAN: That green, yeah, I've hit probably two good shots into that green when the pin was at the front and they ended up 30, 40 feet above it. So that's a little bit easier than the pin that was there a couple of days ago when it was on the front. But it's a tough green to hit into the wind and with a 6 and 5-irons. It's just so firm there. I think mine landed probably three foot on the green and rolled another 30 feet and I hit it good.

Q. Have you ever heard a crowd roar for one of your shots like that before?

NICK FLANAGAN: Oh, I was saying yesterday, I never played in front of more than a hundred people before. That shot that I hit on 16 when everybody went crazy, I never heard anything like it before.

PETE KOWALSKI: Was that mom on the green on 18 and did she put you on the phone with dad?

NICK FLANAGAN: Yeah, that was mom and brother. I'm not sure if my dad knows yet. He's at work. He's underground. So I am pretty sure they would have got him a message, but that was mom, yeah.

Q. Did you only hit four greens; is that correct?

NICK FLANAGAN: I haven't looked at it yet. I got no idea. Probably would be somewhere around there because I didn't hit my irons very well at all.

Q. Are you surprised you can miss that many greens and stay square and then win the match out here?

NICK FLANAGAN: In match play it doesn't really matter, to tell you the truth. On this course if you hit every fairway and every green, you are still probably not going to have under par. The greens are that tough. You can be 180 out in the rough or a guy can be 50 short in the fairway and you can still win the hole from 180. It's just that tough. It's so hard. You got to keep your concentration all the way through and somehow I pulled some shots that I probably would never be able to do again coming in. That was the only difference.

Q. The match had a lot of ebb and flow. You went up, he went up big and then both you guys went up big. How tough is it to balance that shifting there?

NICK FLANAGAN: It's pretty tough. I was pretty nervous standing on probably the 15th tee. I started getting really nervous. 13, I just lost focus so I was pretty down and I was just thinking, just hit it over there somewhere. And to win, I won those two holes. Then from there on in it was nerve wracking. And I just couldn't, wasn't swinging it that well and it didn't help that my rhythm was out as well. So I'm lucky I pulled some, a bit of short game off.

Q. The birdie was almost an ace?

NICK FLANAGAN: Yeah, well I thought it was close. I didn't realize how close it got. But that was -- I was pretty happy with that shot, that's for sure.

Q. Could you talk about the pitch shot on 16 when you hit it left?

NICK FLANAGAN: Yeah, well I had been standing up on that tee, I have been hitting 3-iron every day and just standing at the front left of the green trying to sneak it on there and with a little cut. But I started it there every day and hit a draw instead of a cut. Today it just went way too far, running on adrenaline it's gone 20 meters further than it usually would have. And it wasn't sitting very well. It was on a down slope. I just opened the club and hit it as hard as I could with a small swing and just hoped it landed on the fringe on the outside. And it landed just perfect and rolled down to about probably as close as I could ever hit it again, 10 feet. And I was lucky to hole a downhill right-to-left slider.

Q. How difficult has it been for you to convert yardage?

NICK FLANAGAN: It's -- I've got a conversion chart in that I've put in my yardage book. But that's, it takes Gary and myself a little bit longer to play because we're getting the yardage to the front and to the pin and then we're getting the meterage to the front and to the pin. So it takes us a little bit longer, but still we're not too sure if it's that accurate, but I'm not over hitting greens I'm just missing them left and right.

Q. That's what I was wondering, was sometimes do you get caught maybe misjudging a little?

NICK FLANAGAN: I have, this summer I have a couple of times. Like I add on instead of taking off and I would hit it 30 over the green. But this week I haven't done it so far. So hopefully I cannot do that. Hopefully I won't do that.

Q. Have you ever felt the pressure any more than say from 14 on out?

NICK FLANAGAN: I don't think so. Playing as a 17 year old in a state amateur back home, which was a big tournament for me at the time, I felt a lot of pressure there. And out there today I think that might have helped a little bit. But you just, I think nothing prepares you for the crowds that you get here and the course I'm playing is unbelievable. And the greens are just so slick it just makes you concentrate so hard that I think it almost takes a little bit of the nerves away.

Q. Have you met Greg Norman?

NICK FLANAGAN: I have never met Greg, no.

Q. Obviously you've never met Casey Wittenberg either?

NICK FLANAGAN: No, I never met Casey either.

Q. But he's never met you.

NICK FLANAGAN: That's it. Yeah. I know a fair bit about him because of the player that he is. But I don't think he knows anything about me because I'm from Australia and normally he wouldn't know anything about us over there.

Q. You talked yesterday about expectations not being extremely high coming in. Now that you've made it this far what are your expectations for tomorrow?

NICK FLANAGAN: When I got to the semi finals, there was nothing more I wanted than to get to the finals. Just to get that invite to the Masters and The Open next year. So I think tomorrow for me is going to be a lot more relaxing on the golf course, win or lose. I could lose nine and eight tomorrow and be a lot calmer than I was today when I was three up.

Q. You played that back nine today in 35. Par golf. One birdie, one bogey, and seven pars. You weren't consciously trying to play par golf, you were really going after winning the hole, right?

NICK FLANAGAN: Yeah. I've been playing par golf all week, really. I was just trying to hit greens coming in and I just wasn't swinging good enough to hit the greens with six and 7-irons in. And it was getting really frustrating. And my 60 degree kept me out of a lot of trouble coming in and to shoot 35 on that back side under pressure is very surprising. But I'm pretty happy about it. I'm very happy about how I performed under the pressure this week.

Q. You said yesterday out there that you were going to try not to think about the Masters, The Open, were you able to do that last night?

NICK FLANAGAN: Last night, no. Today when I got on the course first nine holes I didn't really think about it at all. When I got to three up I started thinking about it. I thought I was getting pretty close and then I lost five in a row. And I was just trying to survive. And then the next time I actually started thinking about it was when I was standing over my putt on the 18th. Knowing that I was going to be there. Because all I had to do was really 3-putt. And I don't think my body's ever felt like that before.

Q. Win or lose now would you reconsider your thoughts about college golf?

NICK FLANAGAN: No. I'm not coming to college. I'm done academic-wise. I just don't have the stamina to study. I don't like doing it. I think I'm too lazy to put in the effort for that. Would I rather hit balls all day.

PETE KOWALSKI: How does that change your schedule now that you're playing in the Masters, does that pop it back some?

NICK FLANAGAN: I'm not too sure what I'm doing in April of next year besides going to the Masters. I don't think I'm doing anything much other than that. The schedule, it's probably changed the schedule for my next couple of months. When I get back I'm only home for about a day or a full day and then I have to go away again, like I was saying yesterday, with the four man Australian team. So that's going to be pretty tough because coming off such a high and then having to go away for another week when you just want to be home is, I think that's going to be tough.

Q. When did you first catch sight of that inflatable kangaroo out there that those guys were carrying around?

NICK FLANAGAN: Lynn and Gary actually told me about that yesterday. Lynn said there were some guys that wanted to come out with a big kangaroo and Australian flag and everything today. And I seen them when I was on the putting green this morning. And it's good to have some home country support so far away from home. But even the American crowd out here is -- well a lot of them are rooting for me. So it's unbelievable the support I'm getting from home. But it's just as unbelievable the support I'm getting here.

Q. When you came here two months ago could you have ever conceived this happening? Was your game to the point where you would have even thought about doing this?

NICK FLANAGAN: No. I honestly didn't think I was going to qualify. My first three tournaments over here I think I played probably I think it was 16 over my first three. And then my last four or my last five were 25 under. So I thought -- I got into the -- I have never been really good at qualifying for like the Australian open or stuff like that I kind of thought about it a bit too much half way through my round and ended up making bogeys to miss by you know one and two. And I think I was a lot more mature when I got to the qualifying this year because of playing such big tournaments under such pressure. So I think that helped me a lot. I think qualifying, I was, I shot 67 the first round and then I was like 1-over in the second round through nine holes. And shot 3-under the last second nine to make it by one. So that was a big confidence builder coming into this week.

Q. Have you played in the Australian Amateur and how far have you gotten?

NICK FLANAGAN: I have played in the Australian Amateur twice the last two years. First year I qualified I think I was 16th. And I won my first round. It's only 32 get through to the match play. I won my first round and I lost to Kurt Vance, the guy that ended up winning it in the second. And this year I qualified about 20th and made it to the quarter finals and lost.

PETE KOWALSKI: Nick, thank you so much.

NICK FLANAGAN: Thank you.

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