Date: August 20, 2007
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Flanagan graduates to US Tour

Australian Nick Flanagan realised a boyhood dream when he secured his US Tour card with a brilliant final-round 63 to win the Xerox Classic. By claiming his third title this year on the Nationwide Tour, Flanagan, 23, became just the eighth player in the tour&aposs history to earn an automatic promotion to the US PGA Tour. “It&aposs a dream come through to come out here and win three,” Flanagan said. Despite now being eligible to play events on the main circuit for the remainder of 2007 as well as 2008, Flanagan has no plans to leave the Nationwide Tour just yet. Now second on the Money List, Flanagan can win a berth in the 2008 Players Championship if he can overtake American Roland Thatcher, who holds a $US16,303 advantage over him. He will play this week&aposs National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic. Flanagan, seven shots off the pace at the start of the day, secured victory on Sunday when he set a course record seven-under-par 63 at the Irondequoit Country Club course, winning by one shot from American James Driscoll (71). His flawless round contained an eagle and five birdies. “I wasn&apost thinking about winning the golf tournament, to be honest,” said Flanagan. “I wanted to make as many birdies as I could to get as close as possible. To run him down I had to play as good as I could and get lucky at the end.” “A lot of things went right for me today. Then I rolled in the putt on the last hole and the rest is history.” Australians Jason Day (69) and David McKenzie (67) were also prominent on the leaderboard, finishing third and fourth respectively. The finish was Day&aposs seventh top-10 result for the year and moves him to third on the money list, while McKenzie rises from 37th to 29th. Result from the Xerox Classic (par 70): -10 Nick Flanagan (Australia) 69 68 70 63 -9 James Driscoll 64 66 70 71 -7 Jason Day (Australia) 70 66 68 69 -6 David McKenzie (Australia) 73 65 69 67, Scott Parel 68 65 71 70, Justin Bolli 71 64 69 70 -5 David Mathis 67 69 67 72 -4 Fran Quinn 69 67 73 67 -3 Jon Mills 71 67 70 69, Dennis Paulson 70 70 68 69, Omar Uresti 69 70 69 69 Also: -2 Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand) 70 71 70 67 +2 Michael Long (New Zealand) 70 72 69 71 +3 Matthew Jones (Australia) 73 69 71 70