It&aposs been a rollercoaster few years for Australia&aposs Michael Sim. The 28 year old Scottish-born West Australian makes his return to the PGA Tour of Australasia this week at the NZPGA Championship after several years. It is Sim&aposs first pro start anywhere since the Miccosukee Championship last October in Miami and his first Australasian Tour event since the 2010 Australian PGA Championship. Earlier that year Sim was ranked as high as 34 in the world after winning 3 times on the then Nationwide Tour in 2009 and was ranked in the company of Nick Watney, Y.E Yang, Luke Donald and Charl Schwartzel and earned the prized invitation from Augusta National. He still holds the record for the most prizemoney won in a season on the Web.com (formely Nationwide) Tour. Since then however, Sim has battled injury and form problems and his world ranking slipped quickly. The last time I was here was 2008 so it s good to be back it’s a great town and that s part of why I wanted to play here, said Sim. I got in on Sunday and played a few holes yesterday, the course is in good shape. I went up and checked out the Queenstown Hill, I am actually staying on a couple of extra days to maybe do some rafting and bungee jumping so it feels good to be back. I have had a few lingering things but I just haven t been playing. I didn t really play that well last year and didn t get into many events, added Sim. I tried to find some new coaching and just tried to search a little too much but as of right now I have just been doing my own stuff, it s been going well. I have been working with the TrackMan machine which is quite interesting and trying to get my feels back. Sim s hard work seems to be paying off and he is set to test his game on The Hills layout this week. I have been playing well at home, shooting some good scores and I just felt like I wanted to come here to play this week, added Sim. I entered on the last day I am happy with where my game is at, it s good to be playing and playing well again. Hopefully I can be right in the mix after the cut and have a good weekend. The NZPGA Championship is the first tournament in Sim s 2013 season. My status is limited this season, said Sim of the Web.com Tour. I will get into the tournaments that I won in 2009 but they cancelled the Stonebrae so I won t have that one obviously, my first official event won t be until mid May. I am also considering going up to the Indonesia OneAsia tournament and maybe a couple of events in April. But as of right now I am just going to play this week, concentrate and see if it can be a successful tournament.
Author: Golf Australia