The amateur: Micheluzzi aims high at #VicOpen

David Micheluzzi had a break at the end of 2018, a year in which he exploded to the notoriety as the Victorian number 1 on an interstate amateur series, where he went unbeaten, the Victorian Amateur and the Master of the Amateurs won and came second in the Australian Amateur.

Then there was the Emirates Australian Open at The Lakes, where he finished in the top five, followed by the Australian amateur string quartet in January, breaking the scoreboard with 16-time in two rounds

He is ranked number five in the world by amateurs and it was clear that he has a long professional career. But at home in the southern suburbs of Melbourne, he took his clubs with his mates and played some golf for fun, going back to his original club, Cranbourne.

He had to catch his breath. "It was great, just to relax and play golf instead of worrying about numbers and scoring," he said today.

But Micheluzzi, one of the best young talents ever to come from the elite amateur systems, is back on the horse and rides hard as he prepares for his fourth start in an ISPS Handa Vic Open. Last year he finished as 33rd, the first time he made the cut. This year, at 22, he is a more-rounded player on the border of professional turning.

Micheluzzi, who plays from the Victorian Institute of Sport, has switched from a draw to a fade as his favorite tee-shot in the search for better control, a decision he made at the end of last year. He is more than aware that some of the game's biggest games (namely Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) preferred a fade.

"I'm getting shorter," he said. "I may have given up 10 or 15 meters, do not sway so hard, I hit small fades of the tee, and on my day I can feel good enough to make draws, but it usually disappears slowly. & # 39; & # 39;

The reasons are simple. He wants to be more competitive in four rounds. "These guys are so good, it does not matter which tour you are on, that you have to throw good numbers on the board and hit them all off the t-shirt, that was the bottom part of my game. get more into the game and offer myself good bird chances. "

Micheluzzi plans to become professional later this year, after he goes abroad to compete in the Amateur of the British Amateur and the United States. He took his time with the switch, very consciously. "After school when I first came to the VIS, I saw it as an internship," he said. "You are basically a student for four or five years, and I treated it like that.

"As an amateur I do not worry about making cuts, paying the bills, although you still have to play well to get the start of these events as an amateur, I feel like I've done the best I can It's probably not what the other guys would think was the best for them, but I just thought & # 39; it's better later than before & # 39 ;, & # 39;

Micheluzzi is one of the top amateurs in the men's field this week, including Conor Purcell, the Irishman who won the Australian Amateur in Woodlands last month, and Andre Lautee, who won the Victorian amateur at Huntingdale.

"It's just another four rounds of golf," Micheluzzi said. "Whether it's in Cranbourne or the Vic Open, that's it, I know it's different, but that's how I want to treat it."