Like many local tour players, COVID dealt this Melbourne pro a poor hand, but now he feels like he’s turned the corner.
[Images getty images: Chris Hyde, Andy Cheung]
There’s plenty on the line for David Micheluzzi as the 2022-2023 PGA Tour of Australasia enters its final month. The Victorian sat second on the Order of Merit as the Vic Open loomed, knowing there are rich rewards on offer for the top-three finishers – the leader in particular. If his next few weeks pan out the right way, he’s eyeing a DP World Tour card at the end of the year and possibly his first start in a Major.
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I loved golf from an early age. I was about 2 hitting a plastic ball around the house and then Dad took me to a driving range at about 4. I didn’t want to leave. I joined Cranbourne as a junior member at 6 years old. I played heaps of golf among a lot of different sports, but golf was the main one.
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I was one of several Aussie players to turn pro just before COVID hit. The hardest part of that period from a financial standpoint is obvious, but what was mentally toughest was simply not playing. Just now we’ve played a lot of golf, but in early 2021, it was like, How do you do this again? We got smashed by it. I hope none of us experience that again.
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Leading last year’s Australian Open in the early stages increased my sense of feeling like I belong on tour, especially in that field. I’ve made massive gains in that area in the past year. Just playing the Dunhill Links event in Scotland was a cool experience, but I made the cut in some of the worst conditions against some of the best players in the world. Once I came back to Australia, I thought, I feel like I belong. You can’t really train for that; there’s no guide on how to do it. People say, “You’ve got to be patient,” and all that. Well, no. Sometimes you have to be a bit more aggressive. You have to figure it out yourself.
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One experience I took away from Australian Open week was just how fast everything moved. I felt rushed a little bit. I tried to be as slow and comfortable as I could, but because I’m such a quick player, it felt even quicker. I learned I could potentially take more time and just stand back and think, All right, just chill out a little bit.
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I hadn’t won in five years before winning the WA PGA last October. It was good to know I could hit the key shots down the stretch and just let it go a little. I wasn’t too strategic; I just hit every shot with absolute commitment, and it worked. That was a learning experience, so hopefully I can do that many more times.
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I’m way more of a player. I hate practice. I genuinely hate practising. I’ll do a bit of putting, I’ll do a bit of chipping, but I hate hitting balls on the range. Can’t stand it. I do bits – 10 swings where I’m actually working on a feel and then the rest would be hitting shots, but then I’ll get bored. And getting bored while doing that is not good at all.
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It’s satisfying to look back on last year and look where I’m at now compared to where I was a year before. I was struggling. I had a call with my manager and my coach, Marty Joyce, in October 2021 saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know where the golf ball’s going. I’m not enjoying it. It’s becoming a job, but I’m not making any money from it.” It wasn’t a good time. Once everything opened up and we got to play a little bit more golf and play every day, I found the love of it again. Playing with my mates, then competing, suddenly the results started taking care of themselves.
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Every player will experience a year, maybe half a year of, Where is this going? What am I doing? Mine was just when I turned pro, so I had to start from the bottom. I went to Q-School, got my card here, and felt like I earned my way back, which is satisfying. And now I’m a tour winner. I’ve got all this season, I’ve got next season, I’ve got the season after. So even if I do go and play in Europe, if that doesn’t go well, I can come back here and I know I’ve still got the winner’s category here. It’s opened up a lot of doors. It’s taken a lot of stress off.
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Look at some of the best players in the world.You could say Tiger went through it at some stage. Jack went through it. More recently Matt Wolff went through it. There are a lot of guys where they were on top of the world and all of a sudden, it crumbled. That fear of, Where is it going? And, I don’t know if I can break par, or, I don’t know if I can shoot under 80. It’s the worst feeling, especially when you have to make cuts to make money and try to keep your card. It’s brutal. You don’t wish it upon anyone, but it may happen at some point.
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Don’t stop being a kid. Be that 15, 16-year-old kid at your home club just playing, hitting shots and having no fear – “Watch this. I can do this.” Have that attitude rather than getting caught up in, It’s a job, it’s got to look like this. No, just go out and play, because that’s when you get the most creative and it can bring you a lot of good results. And then you feel good, too. You feel younger.
