Flush with confidence from his major championship debut, Melbourne golfer Alistair Presnell is ready to push harder towards a PGA Tour card.
The 33-year-old tees it up in the Wichita Open in front of a handful of people in small-town Kansas this week, a world away from the thousands who surrounded each hole at last week’s US Open.
Presnell is a regular on the secondary Nationwide Tour in the US where almost 200 players vie to finish in the top 25 on the money list.
Those who do by year’s end earn a promotion to the lucrative US PGA tour, where Presnell proved he belonged by contending in the US Open in San Francisco.
In his major championship debut, Presnell found himself inside the top 10 for the majority of the first two days and, at one stage, he was as high as third on day two.
The brutality of the Olympic Club layout eventually bit him a few times on the third day but a fightback round on Sunday earned him a tie for 29th and $US53,168 ($A52,350), boosting his confidence.
“That was almost as good as it gets,” Presnell said. “To qualify for a major is awesome. To make the cut was fantastic and while on Saturday the course kind of bit me, to come out on Sunday and shoot even-70 was an absolute treat.
“If I can get off the Nationwide Tour, I will really feel like I do belong and can perform on the big stage. I can’t wait to get the job done.”
The job resumes in Kansas where Presnell sits right on the bubble, in 25th on the money list, with $US76,229 ($A75,000) for the season. Sadly, his US Open money doesn’t count towards his quest for a card but, with 16 events left on the tour schedule, he’s aware there is plenty of time for his fortunes to go either way.
“In the back of my mind, I feel I’m going to do it,” Presnell says of his task at hand.
“But I don’t like to assume anything and I don’t want to sound big-headed or suggest I rightfully own one of those top-25 spots.
“The 150 guys who tee it up on the Nationwide Tour every week all deserve it, to be honest – some guys who are outstanding golfers don’t even keep a card on this tour so to just assume I’m going to take one of them is a bit presumptuous.
“But it is a clear goal. There is no place I’d rather be than on the PGA Tour.”
Fellow Australians Cameron Percy (9th) and Nick Flanagan (14th) join Presnell inside the top 25 at this stage of the season, while Scott Gardiner (33rd), Peter Lonard (47th), Aron Price (57th), Bronson La’Cassie (87th) and Andrew Buckle (93rd) are within striking distance if they can get some big results to go their way.
Meanwhile, Aaron Baddeley leads a 13-strong Australian cast on the PGA Tour this week at the Travellers Championship in Connecticut.
Baddeley, fresh off an announcement he is expecting his third child later this year, is hoping for a bounce-back week after missing the cut at the US Open.
Robert Allenby, Nathan Green, Gavin Coles, Matt Jones, Steven Bowditch, Rod Pampling, Mathew Goggin, Greg Chalmers, Nick O’Hern, Stuart Appleby, Marc Leishman and Bryden MacPherson are all looking for Australia’s first win of the season.
