Nitties stays positive after Tour card near-miss

Newcastle professional James Nitties only narrowly missed earning a European Tour card at the recent World Super 6 in Perth.

Yet that certainly hasn’t torpedoed Nitties’ game plan to ‘soldier on’ and chase more world victories on the world-wide stage.

James Nitties (Credit: Anthony Powter)

Nitties lost the final 2&1 to Thailand’s big-hitting Kiradech Aphibarnrat recently, and admitted it was a bit shattering.

“But I have watched some of my mates give the game away and they could really play too,” said Nitties.

“And I’ve decided I don’t want to be the one sitting around in a few years’ time saying I could have done this or that.”

“My girlfriend has been so supportive of me too – even though it means I don’t see a lot of her.”

“And I have such a great support team – and I can support myself.”

Nitties certainly had a terrific consolation when he banked $180,000 for finishing runner-up in the Perth event.

He plans to head for the US mid-way through the year and try his luck on a few Web.com tour events and was full of praise for the format of the Super 6 event.

“It’s probably the closest thing that golf has to cricket’s Big Bash,” he said.

“It’s an aggressive style – to play six holes and if you can make two or three birdies you win – it’s pretty good.”

“I think in the final when I played ‘Barnrat’ I won the first hole and I suddenly thought ‘I’ve only got five holes left’.”

“It was obviously different to play that many holes in one day and I’m getting a bit older now so I was feeling a bit sore, for sure.”

“I have been playing well, just not finishing well.”

“In the matchplay I felt like I had a great opportunity to win. Every match was a bonus for me.”

While Nitties narrowly missed earning a European Tour card he’ll still be hitting the road this year.

“I’ll try to get a couple of invites and I’ll go to America in the middle of the year and hopefully get into a few ‘webbies’,” he said.

Nitties agreed that he had joked with Aphibarnrat before they played the final: “I pretty much said to Kiradech (at the start of the final), `I’ll give you the winner’s cheque, just give me the European exemption and we don’t even have to tee it up’,” he joked.