“YouTube Golf” was not something that the kids were watching when Nick Flanagan came through the ranks in Newcastle.
Heck, YouTube wasn’t registered as a domain name until two years after Flanagan shocked the world by winning the 2003 US Amateur, the first non-American winner in more than 40 years.
Two years later, as YouTube welcomed its first viewers, Flanagan won his first event as a professional. Two years after that, in 2007, the then 23-year-old won three times on the Nationwide Tour to earn instant promotion to the PGA Tour.
If YouTube took decades to build its audience, Flanagan was suddenly an overnight sensation, an ascension that would prove hard to sustain.
It is somewhat ironic then, some 19 years later, that some of the first pieces of content that Flanagan has shared in his early foray into life as a content creator were from that memorable season in 2007 when he had the golf world at his feet.
After receiving an invitation from Golf NSW to play this week’s Ford NSW Open at The Vintage Golf Club in the Hunter Valley, Flanagan is back in familiar territory and on the verge of the unknown.
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“It’s a funny one; I don’t watch a lot of that stuff on YouTube,” Flanagan conceded.
“It’s kind of a little bit after my generation, so I’m not as into the content creating stuff as it seems like the demographic of kids that are playing golf now, they love it.
“It seems to be the way that people are viewing golf a lot more.
“I do see a few things, especially when we had the idea to do it, just to see how the other guys are doing it. The Ron Chopper stuff, he’s hilarious. That guy seems like a really genuine guy and a really funny guy and he’s going away playing these crazy golf courses.
“I’m like, yeah, eventually maybe something like that, but I do have three pretty young kids, so I don’t want to be travelling too much.”
‘Grumpy old pros talking about the old days’
It’s been more than three years since Flanagan last played all four rounds of a Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia event, missing the cut in the seven events he has played since finishing tied fifth at the 2023 Players Series Hunter Valley at Cypress Lakes.
His focus has been elsewhere, namely building a family of three children with wife of 10 years, Corinne.
He has begun the process of obtaining PGA coaching qualifications through the Tour Articulation Program and, in the past week, launched the first episode in his YouTube series titled, Back 9 at Belmont.
Good friend and PGA Tour winner Nathan Green is Flanagan’s first guest on Belmont Golf Club’s spectacular back nine that abuts Blacksmiths Beach, the now 42-year-old hoping to enlighten the kids with what old pros are thinking.
“You kind of get to hear some grumpy old pros talking about the old days, but good players as well that can still play good golf,” said Flanagan.
“We had this idea to do the back nine at Belmont years ago. We just never really needed to do it or we didn’t really have the time to do it.
“My mate Brad, who’s filmed it all, he’s in that business and the course looks amazing. We’re right on the Pacific Ocean there, so we’ve got the backdrop.
“My personality needs to get a little bit better. But other than that, we’re going to have a lot of really good guests.”
One of the upcoming guests is two-time DP World Tour and relatively recent Novocastrian convert Andrew Dodt, who Flanagan has also launched a business venture with.
The pair are the front men of Tour Edge Golf Experiences which promises guests access to some of Australia’s most exclusive golf courses and tips from two players who have experienced golf at the highest level.
“There’s obviously a lot of people doing golf travel and Andrew and I had this idea that the clients we have met through teaching, we can give them the experience of going to exclusive golf courses, playing alongside proven winners in the US and Europe teach them course management and stuff like that,” Flanagan added.
“It’s mainly about having a good time and taking them to the destinations but having two pros that played on tour for 20-odd years and now teach that you can play with and learn from.
“Getting people on those courses that are tough to get onto and just showing everyone a good time.”
