Codswallop

A new year and the opening tournament on the PGA Tour, the Mercedes-Benz Championship has already been run and won. Swede Daniel Chopra continued his good form taking out the Mercedes-Benz Championship. I had a chance to see Daniel this summer in the Australian Masters, where of course he lost the playoff to Aussie Aaron Baddeley. This time however Daniel Chopra came out on top in a playoff, defeating one of the hot players from last season, Steve Stricker.

The season opener looked rather different this year with a distinct lack of Aussies, including of course three time champion Stuart Appelby. Only the winners from the previous season are invited to play and although 2007 was a good year for the Aussies it only resulted in two winners, Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley. We had a lot of round three leaders last year. Hopefully 2008 will see a a few more fall over the line.

I'm looking forward to 2008, I think the Aussies will continue to punch above their weight. After his win in the Australian PGA at Coolum I'm hoping Peter Lonard will be spurred on to have a great year. It will also be interesting to see how the two Aussie young guns Nick Flanagan and Jason Day go in their first season in the big time.

I've talked about Nick Flanagan a lot on this blog. Nick Flanagan is a former U.S. Amateur Champion who won his way onto the main pga tour this year courtesy of his three wins on the Nationwide Tour.

I'm sure all of the big names were chasing Nick's signature but in the end it was Callaway that closed the deal. We'll get a chance to see Nick strut his new Callaway gear later this week at the MasterCard Masters at Huntingdale and over the rest of the Australian summer of golf. I suspect we'll see him perform very well and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win.

I see that Nick Flanagan has made the cut in his first tournament on the big stage, the Turning Stone Resort Championship. I'm sure Nick would be happy very with that start. If you're not aware, Nick gained his PGA Tour card by winning three tournaments on the Nationwide Tour this year.

Update: Nick Flanagan has finished in a tie for 18th in his début start as PGA tour player. Top twenty, what a terrific way to start!

Aussie Nick Flanagan won his third tournament on the Nationwide Tour this year, the Xerox Classic at Irondequoit Country Club, Rochester, New York. By winning the Xero Classic, Nick Flanagan earned an automatic promotion to PGA Tour. Way to go Nick! However Nick will have to wait until later in the year, after the Fedex Cup playoffs, before he will be able to tee off on the PGA Tour.

As it stands at writing this, and I'm sneaking this post in a bit late, there are three Australian's in the top twenty five, thus in line for PGA Tour qualification for next year. Nick of course at number two, although it doesn't matter as he's already qualified is one ahead of Jason Day. The surprise packet is Matthew Jones at number seventeen. Also there are a few Aussies sitting just outside the top twenty five - Scott Gardiner, Greg Chalmers and David McKenzie.

Congrats to
Nick Flanagan on wining the
BMW Charity Pro-Am on the Nationwide tour. This is a consecutive win for Nick after taking out the Henrico Country Open a couple of weeks ago. Things are looking good for a crack at the lucrative pga tour next year.