Gun amateur David Micheluzzi says he wants to play on the Japan Tour when he turns professional later this year.
Micheluzzi, Australia’s top-ranked amateur at No. 7, played a tournament in Japan last weekend and loves the feel of that part of the world.
It means that he will breaking rank with the army of Australians who routinely head for the United States or Europe.
Micheluzzi, 21, was in the top-five at the Emirates Australian Open last year and is one of the cluster of outstanding young male Australian players set to move into the bigger world of golf after Cameron Davis and Curtis Luck (playing on the US Tour), Lucas Herbert, Jake McLeod and Min Woo Lee (Europe).
“It’s a great tour. From what I’ve heard, everyone loves it,’’ he told Golf Australia’s Inside The Ropes podcast. “I was always going to Japanese tour school at the end of this year. The money’s good. I love the food there. The courses are good, greens are very similar to here. The only thing I’ve got to adjust to is the rough and how tight the fairways are.’’
Micheluzzi also explained his decision to hold off turning professional until the end of 2019 as a slow but sure approach.
“All my family are tradesmen,” he said. “They did their apprenticeships and I thought: ‘Why not do that with golf?’ So my next five years … I thought if I could try to be top 10 amateur in Australia. I’ve done that. No. 1 in the rankings? I’ve done that. I wanted to creep up the world rankings. That opens up a lot of doors. Hopefully I’ve got such a long career ahead of me that it doesn’t affect it. I still want to be playing when I’m 45.”
Micheluzzi intends playing the British Amateur championship and the US Amateur this northern summer along with the Asia Pacific Championship, all of which carry automatic invitations to major championships attached to them.