National Squad member Oliver Goss says it&aposs fair to say he&aposs been in a purple patch of late. A win at the WA Open and third place finish at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand has him good shape heading into his first round at the Talisker Masters where he&aposll be paired with World Number 5 Adam Scott and 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell in the tournament&aposs marquee group. In a special clinic on Tuesday, Scott confirmed he had watched Goss in action during the Asia-Pacific Amateur and was looking forward to playing with him. Goss has been on his own cloud nine since he saw the draw. “I found out yesterday. I had a practice round and came off the course and saw some of the Aussie amateurs who told me and I didn&apost really believe them. They kept saying &aposyou might have a pretty good pairing this week&apos but I didn&apost believe them until I went in and saw the draw myself. I was pretty shocked – I was so excited,” Goss said. The Perth local said the new attention was a positive in his game. “I think so. I&aposm playing with Graeme McDowell and Adam Scott, two of the favourites so there&aposs a bit more attention. It&aposs good attention though. I think I&aposll sort of thrive off it, I like a crowd, it should be a good couple of days.” Goss defeated good friend Brady Watt in a play-off to win the WA Open and says because he was playing against a friend, the reality of the victory hasn&apost quite sunk in. “It still doesn&apost feel like I&aposve won a big professional event because I was playing with Brady, duelling with Brady and he&aposs such a good friend and we&aposve played amateurs together for the last four or five years and it was good to battle it out with him” While determined not to be overawed by his playing partners, Goss admits he&aposll look forward to a chat as they walk the fairways of Kingston Heath “I want to talk them but also focus on my golf. I played my first round here yesterday and it was good. The bunkering here makes it really difficult – you can&apost be aggressive. It&aposs tough around the greens too with the drop-off areas.” “You want to avoid the big scores, the doubles and the only way to do that is to play safe off the tee and lay up short of the bunkers. My ultimate goal would be a top 10 finish. I definitely think it&aposs possible if I play like I have been in the last couple of weeks,” Goss said. Some minor tinkering following the Perth win has him happy with his shot making. “After the WA Open we made a couple of minor swing changes which has helped a lot with my shapes – my left to right and right to lefts are good so that&aposs helped.” Despite the win in Perth and the media attention that followed, Goss was quick to move into the mindset that earned him the top 3 finish in Thailand. “Obviously I was a bit on cloud nine and then I came back the next morning and we had to fly out at 2am or something, it was pretty early but as soon as I got on the flight I was pretty much over it straight away. The first two days were really great, I had a couple of good rounds but the last two days nothing went my way, I tried everything, I couldn&apost do any more than that and nothing would go into the hole,” Goss said. “Third is a pretty decent finish and I&aposm happy with it.” And rightly so.
Author: Hamish Jones / Golf Australia