James Nicholas finished T3 at the 2025 Compliance Solutions Championship to move from 78th on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List to No. 62. Not only did the finish earn him a spot in the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, but also it earned him full Korn Ferry status for 2026. Nicholas discusses the importance of that T3 finish and the opportunity to play his way into the top 50, which would qualify him for Final Stage of Q-School.
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Happy to be here. That’s that that’s the big thing. So, kind of along those lines, um set the scene for the week where we are and kind of what it took last week. Yeah. I mean, we’re in Friends, Indiana, Tour Championship. First time playing the tour championship. Uh my first year out here, I had a chance to play because it was that COVID season and you just had to be the top, I guess, 120 to get in, but I wasn’t. So, um, my buddy Brandon Woo won that one. So, I have a lot of friends who’ve gone gone here and played really well. But, yeah, it’s great to be here and that’s been my goal since the start of the season, but you got to do your best to kind of reset and focus on this week and try to go play great again this week. And, you know, maybe a win in a prayer would do something for me, but you never really know. Yeah. So, kind of alluding to that, it’s a unique week where you know you have, I guess, first of all, what’s it mean knowing that you have a full card out here for next year? I mean, it lets me breathe. Um, I got married a month ago. My wife and I have been holding off on making our plans for pretty much everything, whether it’s where we’re going to live, what we’re going to do, if we’re going on a honeymoon. Um, you know, making plans of friends, ask, you know, meet a lot of friends who are getting married soon and seeing if we can make their weddings. And just after this week, we’ll kind of sit down and go over those plans. And like it’s awesome to know that I have a job for next year. I’ve got a place to play no matter what, no matter how this week goes. Um, and it’s the first tournament where I feel like I can actually play golf and I know I’m going to play four rounds. That’s rare in this sport. Like, you know, I’m going to play four rounds and I don’t have to really stress. I’m going to go play as well as I can, then whatever happens happens. The goal is to win. Um, you know, I’m looking at the numbers. Maybe a top five will get me to the top 50. So that’s that other little line that I’m looking at. So there are a few things, but again if I finish sixth or you know what is it? 73rd. I guess it doesn’t really matter. Um for me it’s a great paycheck, but we’re not out here to to make money. Guys are out here right now to get their PJ tour cards. So that’s what this week’s all about. Here’s Nicholas at 16. Nicholas trying to ride up the leaderboard, post a score here. Currently in a tie for third. How about this one for Nicholas? Miss for Eagle. This to get to 24 under second alone if he makes it. How about Nicholas and how many Eagles he’s made this week. That’s his fourth of the week. Second today. This dude is pushing himself up the board. But Nicholas, how about this one? Great shot. Nicholas trying to tie Marty Doe in second place. And it’s one of the the more brave second shots we’ve seen at 18. The three putt at 17 trying to bounce right back. Good run. A heck of a week for James Nicholas. I mean, last week I started on number one T, took out driver and pumped it straight in the woods. Reteed, made double, and then uh it was an interesting start. My heart was racing. I knew what last week meant. um when you’re playing with your job on the line, with your career on the line, you you know, you don’t really sleep, it feels like Q school. And that’s what my wife and I talked about a lot. We were just alluding to the fact that this is another chance at Q school. You know, I’ve got two chances. I got this week and then I also have if I don’t play well, Q school, which I played really well at in the past. So, the the mindset was let’s go out and play well and try to take all the pressure off, but that doesn’t really work. You know, I I was I was definitely a little bit nervous and I ended up doubling my eighth hole as well. So, I had two doubles and two pars on the front nine of my first uh first nine holes of the tournament. End up shooting even par. And then after that, I feel like I just had a little sigh of relief. I was like, “Okay, you know what? I don’t have to play perfect golf. I can make a lot of birdies out here.” And then after that, I started driving the ball really well. My irons were phenomenal and I put it awesome. So, ended up shooting 23 under par. Lost by like 10. you know, uh, what are you going to do when Adrian goes out and has a, you know, career day or not even career day, but a history making day or week? Absolutely. What was it like kind of just Sunday night just kind of processing what Sunday night was a lot better than Saturday night? Saturday night, I didn’t look at the leaderboard the whole week. I knew I needed to play well. And if I looked at the leaderboard, I would have psyched myself out and I would have created this notion of having everything to lose because I knew I was in a good spot going into Sunday. And I’ve noticed in my career where I play really well when my back’s against the wall and when I have nothing to lose. So I try to create that mindset of okay, hey, I’m a few strokes behind where I need to be. Let’s try to go out and chase in the morning. Um, and it’s hard to do when you’re not in that position and you know you’re not because you have late tea time and you know you see yourself towards the end of the pack. Um, but yeah, once we finished that round coming down the stretch on Sunday, I was like starting to, you know, smile a little bit more and a little bit more. I was like, “Okay, I think I can do this and do this, but do my best to stay in the moment.” And then Sunday was just, okay, how do I get the French lick? I didn’t have a flight. I didn’t have a hotel. Texted Brad and I was like, hey, do you have a hotel for me? And now we’re here. So, it’s definitely been a whirlwind. And happy to be here. And I hit the fairway. Let’s go. This is great. There’s no real slope here. No, we must have been We got all the way down to the bottom. Like it’s 320. And yeah, must hit a different way. Okay. What do we got? 154 adjusted. 154 adjusted. 154. Little off nine. Just a little. It’s not really much help up there. Okay. Yeah. Don’t know. You didn’t press. Okay. It’s okay. It’s all right. I was like so proud that I pushed it. It’s all good. It was a good shot. Thanks. And then um for this week, what would you say are kind of your early impressions of this course and will it take? Well, this is this is a proper test of golf. You’re going to have to golf your ball. You’re going to have to get good T- shots, great approaches. You’re going to have to manage yourself around here and, you know, also think your way around this golf course. Pete Dy does a great job at making everything look tiny. They’re giving you a little bit more space, but again, like these greens are super small. So, this is going to be a great test of golf. I know the winning score was what, nine under last year, and Braden shot a pretty good last round. So, anything under par is great around here. And again, just focus on hitting fairways, hitting greens, and doing the simple stuff because it’s going to be a tough test. What were you doing? You might It’s okay if you don’t remember, but do you remember what you were doing during this week last year? Oh, yeah. Of course I do. I was playing second stage of Cusco over in Europe. So, I mean, oh, sorry. No, last year. That was two years ago. Last year, I was playing in Korea. So, I I had DP World Tour status last year, and I was trying to keep my card over there. So, I had to go to Korea um for the one of the last few events of the year. Um, and that was around this time and I was looking at all my buddies playing in finals or tour championship and wishing I was there and you know you kind of go back and forth of just trying to play your best golf and happy to be here this week. And lastly, kind of um just being married, what was kind of that experience like the wedding, what were a couple of the coolest moments? Yeah, leading up to the wedding, I I just kept telling my wife, I was like, you know, it’d be really nice to kind of be in a little better point spot uh going into the wedding. But I played well in Boise, finished 15th right before the wedding, flew home and the wedding was incredible. Um, you know, she did a great job. She she just kind of took the reigns on it and planned it all and I just kind of showed up and we made sure that was on time. But it was great to be surrounded by so much love, so much friends and f so many of my friends and family, my coaches. Um, and it was great to see all of our families just like mesh together and uh connect from different walks of life. And then after the wedding, we, you know, came back to golf. And golf just feels a little bit less important when you have those kind of sort of moments in your life. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I played, you know, well last week. See if we can make a little birdie for the camera. Oh, gosh dang it. Thanks, guys.
2 Comments
What a gent
Love this guy!