Nitties recovering from setback in US
22-year old New South Wales golfer, James Nitties, has suffered a setback in is US campaign in 2005 with an infection in his hip joint seeing him laid low for over a month.
Doctors in Dallas, where Nitties spent a few days in hospital, have yet to accurately diagnose the complaint but are confident that the medication he is now on will see him make a full recovery.
Nitties manager, Lynn Whitehouse, said today that the key focus now is to get Nitties fit and his game in shape for a tilt at stage two of USPGA Tour qualifying to be held in mid November. Nitties is exempt from stage one because of his outstanding debut season in Australia where his performances included a runner up finish to Peter Lonard at the Schweppes Australian PGA Championship at Hyatt Regency Coolum and a 10th place finish at the Jacob's Creek Open.
Dependant on the speed of his recovery, Nitties may return to Australia to play one or two Von Nida Tour events in Queensland before heading to the US for the USPGA Tour School.
In addition to the Jacob's Creek and New Zealand PGA events, Nitties has played in four Nationwide Tour events in the US this season having to Monday qualify to gain starts. His best amongst those was when 11th at the Chattanooga Classic after leading early in the event. He has also played several events on the Hooters Tour.
Nitties was an outstanding amateur, representing Australia in last year's Eisenhower Trophy and winning the New Zealand Amateur Championship in 2003. Many pundits see him as having a great future in the professional game. He was to have been playing at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland next week but has been forced to withdraw.Green said later the difference in his game over the last two weeks has been a change in the ball he has been using. I have just not been getting the feedback from my ball that I felt I should be and made the change to the softer Nike One Platinum. I feel I have much greater control with that. When asked to nominate his shot of the day he was quick to point out the five iron to the par three 16th. I was very hot, my hands were sweaty and I had struggled a little one the previous couple of holes. It did not lead to a birdie but it was clearly one that he enjoyed and gave him the boost he was needing at that time to finish as well as he did.
Stadler reiterated his liking for the Vines layout. When I played here for the first time on Tuesday I just felt comfortable on the course and immediately like the greens. Much has been made of the fact that he is the son of Craig but interestingly he has not heard from his Dad this week. There may be a couple of emails from them but I have not looked so far. Stadler looks to win his second tournament in two months following his win in Argentina over Angel Cabrera in December. That golf course was playing much more difficult than this one and if you think there is some movement on those greens you should see the ones we played on there. These greens are like this compared to them, he said pointing to the table he was sitting behind.
For Stadler and Flint, tomorrow promises the possibility of a huge leap in status from their current standing in the game. For either of them to win it would give them immediate graduation to the European Tour should they so choose. In Flint's case it would be a no brainer although for Stadler he might prefer to stay on his chosen road via the Nationwide Tour.
For O'Hern a win would put to bed the nightmare of Sunday at the MasterCard Masters where he let a three shot lead disappear. It would also herald a graduation of sorts for him also as it would mean he will finally avoid the constant questions about winning or not. Unlike Huntingdale he is not the overnight leader and it might just make the difference as he searches for such an important breakthrough.
For Choi it would further cement his status as the world class player that he is.
There are others who are also not without their chance including Craig Parry and Fred Couples and maybe even Casey at 12 under has a chance.
What appeared a one horse race at the start of day three had all of a sudden developed into a race with numerous chances. Twenty three players were within five shots of the lead. The organizers are no doubt disappointed by the fact that so many of their stars missed the cut but they have one hell of a final day on their hands in any case.
Stadler leads by two from Green and Choi with Flint, Molinari and O'Hern one shot further back.
Doctors in Dallas, where Nitties spent a few days in hospital, have yet to accurately diagnose the complaint but are confident that the medication he is now on will see him make a full recovery.
Nitties manager, Lynn Whitehouse, said today that the key focus now is to get Nitties fit and his game in shape for a tilt at stage two of USPGA Tour qualifying to be held in mid November. Nitties is exempt from stage one because of his outstanding debut season in Australia where his performances included a runner up finish to Peter Lonard at the Schweppes Australian PGA Championship at Hyatt Regency Coolum and a 10th place finish at the Jacob's Creek Open.
Dependant on the speed of his recovery, Nitties may return to Australia to play one or two Von Nida Tour events in Queensland before heading to the US for the USPGA Tour School.
In addition to the Jacob's Creek and New Zealand PGA events, Nitties has played in four Nationwide Tour events in the US this season having to Monday qualify to gain starts. His best amongst those was when 11th at the Chattanooga Classic after leading early in the event. He has also played several events on the Hooters Tour.
Nitties was an outstanding amateur, representing Australia in last year's Eisenhower Trophy and winning the New Zealand Amateur Championship in 2003. Many pundits see him as having a great future in the professional game. He was to have been playing at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland next week but has been forced to withdraw.Green said later the difference in his game over the last two weeks has been a change in the ball he has been using. I have just not been getting the feedback from my ball that I felt I should be and made the change to the softer Nike One Platinum. I feel I have much greater control with that. When asked to nominate his shot of the day he was quick to point out the five iron to the par three 16th. I was very hot, my hands were sweaty and I had struggled a little one the previous couple of holes. It did not lead to a birdie but it was clearly one that he enjoyed and gave him the boost he was needing at that time to finish as well as he did.
Stadler reiterated his liking for the Vines layout. When I played here for the first time on Tuesday I just felt comfortable on the course and immediately like the greens. Much has been made of the fact that he is the son of Craig but interestingly he has not heard from his Dad this week. There may be a couple of emails from them but I have not looked so far. Stadler looks to win his second tournament in two months following his win in Argentina over Angel Cabrera in December. That golf course was playing much more difficult than this one and if you think there is some movement on those greens you should see the ones we played on there. These greens are like this compared to them, he said pointing to the table he was sitting behind.
For Stadler and Flint, tomorrow promises the possibility of a huge leap in status from their current standing in the game. For either of them to win it would give them immediate graduation to the European Tour should they so choose. In Flint's case it would be a no brainer although for Stadler he might prefer to stay on his chosen road via the Nationwide Tour.
For O'Hern a win would put to bed the nightmare of Sunday at the MasterCard Masters where he let a three shot lead disappear. It would also herald a graduation of sorts for him also as it would mean he will finally avoid the constant questions about winning or not. Unlike Huntingdale he is not the overnight leader and it might just make the difference as he searches for such an important breakthrough.
For Choi it would further cement his status as the world class player that he is.
There are others who are also not without their chance including Craig Parry and Fred Couples and maybe even Casey at 12 under has a chance.
What appeared a one horse race at the start of day three had all of a sudden developed into a race with numerous chances. Twenty three players were within five shots of the lead. The organizers are no doubt disappointed by the fact that so many of their stars missed the cut but they have one hell of a final day on their hands in any case.
Stadler leads by two from Green and Choi with Flint, Molinari and O'Hern one shot further back.
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