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“It’s a great feeling to win. I’ve been playing really well for a while now, so I told myself to be patient and wait for it to happen. Today (on Tuesday) was my day,” he said.
The 23-year-old handled the tough front stretch of Royal Johannesburg’s east course in style and took 32 strokes to reach the turn, which left his rivals fighting to catch up.
“I managed to birdie six, seven and eight,” he said. “When you get on a hot streak you try to ride it for as long as possible, so I was very happy with how I played that front nine.”
On the second loop he struggled to maintain the pace of his first nine, but he remained composed and made the clubhouse on a four-under-par total, which sealed a one-shot victory over Gideon Pienaar.
“Life on tour is a grind and you have to continually work hard,” said Flanagan. “I knew that the hours I put in would be rewarded eventually and from here I want to move onwards and upwards.”
The Krugersdorp local finished 49th at the Sunshine Tour’s Qualifying School in January, which earned him exemption on the Big Easy Tour for 2015.
Competitive golf clearly suits him and he has top-10s from all three of his starts on the development tour. At Kempton Park Golf Club in May he tied for eighth place and, a fortnight later, tied for second place at the Huddle Park Golf Club after shooting rounds of 66, 67.
This Tuesday he capped off a stellar start to his career with a maiden win. The future looks bright for a Flanagan, who thrives on the competitive atmosphere of professional golf.
“The Big Easy is tournament golf and when you start winning it’s the signal that you are ready to try for the next tier. I’m very satisfied with the win, but I want more and this is a great foundation to start from,” he concluded.
SCORES (RSA unless otherwise specified):
140 - Bryn Flanagan 71 69
141 - Gideon Pienaar 71 70
142 - Dayne Moore (ZAM) 72 70, Michael Palmer 71 71, Dongkwan Kim (KOR) 71 71, David Mofokeng (LES) 69 73
143 - Coert Groenewald 73 70, Conway Kunneke 70 73, Makhetha Mazibuko 70 73, Gert Myburgh 69 74
144 - Daniel Hammond 75 69, Divan Gerber 74 70, Kevin Rundle 73 71, Pieter Kruger 71 73, John McClean (NIR) 71 73
145 - Paul de Beer 76 69, Jaco Mouton 72 73, Aubrey Barnard 70 75
147 - Tiaan Diederiks 77 70, Burger Heckroodt 74 73, Ryan Clarke 73 74, Bryandrew Roelofsz 72 75, Lean Boezaart 78 69, Breyten Meyer 71 76
148 - Greg Bentley (ZIM) 75 73, Rourke van der Spuy 75 73, Johan van der Wath 75 73, Jastice Mashego 74 74, Glen de Waal (NAM) 74 74, Terence Salo 72 76, Stephen Ferreira (POR) 71 77
149 - Kyle Lucas 76 73, Nico Els 77 72, Mark Fensham 73 76, Stefan Engell Andersen (KEN) 73 76, Rae Mackie 78 71, Jason Froneman 72 77
150 - Michael Dreyer 76 74, Ruan Huysamen (NAM) 76 74, Mikhail Tewary 75 75, Wade Jacobs 77 73, Calvin Caldeira 77 73
151 - Tyron Roelofsz 75 76
152 - Sipho Bujela 76 76
153 - TJ Bekker 77 76, Nkosinathi Dauwa (AMA) 79 74
154 - Wayne Stroebel 75 79, Tertius van den Berg 75 79, Arthur Horne (SWZ) 78 76, Siyanda Mwandla (AMA) 79 75, Thanda Mavundla 79 75, Jason Diab 79 75
155 - Ryan Gosling 77 78
156 - Han Bo Lee 76 80, Jonathan Raphunga 75 81, Maritz Wessels 78 78, Ryan Ciapparelli 79 77, Otto van Greunen 80 76, Jacques de Villiers 82 74
157 - Itumeleng Motale 78 79, Riekus Nortje 78 79
158 - Khaya Jika 78 80, Bryce Bibby 81 77, Roy Da Costa (POR) 81 77
159 - Leorin Pillay 80 79
160 - N.J. Arnoldi 73 87, Shalan Govender 80 80, Duane Keun 81 79
162 - Dave Lamprecht 89 73
164 - Victor Nhlapho 81 83, Louis Botha 82 82, Warrick Moonieyan 83 81
165 - Shingi Shumba (ZIM) 85 80.
