Time stops for no one in golf, and for Curtis Luck and Cameron Davis, their big moments are just a day or two away.
Australians Luck and Davis completed the Web.com Tour championship on September 23 and were handed playing cards for the United States PGA Tour for 2018-19, potentially their big break.
A fortnight on, the rookies start the new season in Napa, California this week as the tour roundabout swings back around. Well they might say: ‘What off-season?’
Luck, 22, and Davis, 23, won’t be complaining. They won’t have time to be anything other than excited.
They have seven tournaments in which they can potentially get a start before there is a re-ranking of players, after the RSM Classic at Sea Island in Georgia in mid-November, the same week as the Emirates Australian Open at The Lakes in Sydney. The re-ranking impacts upon players’ ability to get starts on the main tour.
Sydney’s wunderkind Davis has already committed to defend the Australian Open title he won last year; Perth’s Luck wants to play at The Lakes but it will depend on how he fares in the early part of the new season. There is a possibility he may need to play in Georgia to further his cause, but if he has made enough ground to secure his position, he will likely be back in Sydney.
This week’s season-opener, the Safeway Open, is played at the Silverado resort in California and has a $US6.4 million prize pool.
Both Davis and Luck have performed well when they have had starts on the main tour before, with Davis finished tied-15th in Mayakoba at the end of 2016 playing on a sponsor’s invitation as an amateur, a result that raised eyebrows about his future.
Across the other side of the Atlantic, another young Australian also is stepping out. Lucas Herbert, 22, has earned enough money in limited starts on the European Tour to know that he will have a full card to play in Europe next season. In the meantime, he has taken up an invitation to play the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, with rounds to be played on the Old Course at St Andrews, at Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.