Joyner will begin the championship alongside Tim Elliott and Scott Barr at 11.50am on Friday but his story has become more than simply what transpires over the course of 18 holes.

So much more.

Joyner, a popular fixture in Australian golf circles for decades, had been enjoying an extremely successful 2022 on course. He’d won several SParms PGA Legends Tour events late last summer, then parlayed that into winning qualifying with a scintillating 63 to reach the main field of the Senior British Open in July.

But his life soon took an unimaginably cruel twist.

Joyner was diagnosed with bowel cancer, then, after a couple of operations, given news that would break a lesser human.

The tumour had broken loose into his abdomen and his oncologist confirmed stage four cancer that could be managed by chemotherapy but was highly unlikely ever to be conquered.

It was a shock beyond words for Joyner, who had been as high on life as he could remember with golf humming and wife Carolyn by his side.

Fast-forward through two months – not to make light of painful, nauseating treatments and some intense soul-searching as a family – and Joyner decided earlier this month to first tee it up in the NSW Senior Open in Albury and then back up for the $120,000 PGA Seniors in Richmond.

But rather than practise as he has throughout 30-odd years as a pro, Joyner’s preparation has been concentrated above the neck.

It soon became apparent that this was Joyner’s powerful carrot as he realised the role golf might play in his new world.

“It’s been quite a journey to get here,” he said after anRound 1 at Thurgoona Country Club last week where he would go on to finish tied for 12th with rounds of 69-72-72.

“My body is feeling pretty good considering, and I’m probably in as good a shape as I’m going to be for a while,” he said as a tear welled in his eye, sadly not for the last time during his chat.

“So I just thought it’s important to me to come out and play and be Glenn Joyner – not to sit around feeling sorry for yourself.

“I get to forget about what’s going on while I’m playing golf.

“That’s my plan; just keep doing it while I still can.

“If someone said to me you’ve got 12 months to live and you can do whatever you want, I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing.”

Those words sound far more fatalistic than intended.

Because, as anyone who knows the journeyman South Australian turned Victorian who now calls Queensland’s Sunshine Coast home will attest, he’s always been a determined bugger and has no intention of changing now.

He’s unsure whether to put his eggs in the basket of more abrasive chemotherapy or just live as normally as he can and fight it that way.

“I think a bit of both of those, for right now,” Joyner said.

“Carolyn is such an amazing person – absolutely everything to me, and I honestly can’t imagine doing this without her. She said to me you can’t spend any energy worrying about when or how you’re going to die because you’re not spending it on living while you’re doing that.

“That was a big (lightbulb) moment… and it’s true.

“I’ve come to terms with it, but I just keep showing up; that’s my motto.

“There’s no quit in me; there never has been – f*** cancer.

“I’ll do whatever I need to do. I’m doing some mental stuff, and I guess we’ll see if my mind is stronger than the disease, won’t we?

“One of my good friends is a doctor at Peter MacCallum (Cancer Centre in Melbourne). She said to me, `Just remember that all you need is a one per cent chance because you’ve been in that one per cent your whole life.

“That’s all I need.

“You just need to be around the right people.

“When they told me, the doctor said he wasn’t sure if the chemo would do anything, and then he started talking timeframes, and I said, `You don’t know me; I’m going to be that guy that you tell all your patients about.’

“And he looked at me and didn’t know how to handle it because I guess he’s used to everyone just rolling over.

“The way I look at it, I’m not one of their percentages because I’m fitter and mentally tougher, and I can do stuff that most of their percentages can’t do.

“So that’s my plan. Whatever time they tell me, I’m going to double it.

“The whole thing is a journey. There are so many questions that I don’t have answers to.

“But all I know is I’ll do whatever it takes to be me for as long as I can.”

Joyner’s battle has added fresh perspective for those with who he competes against and travels with as part of the Legends Tour.

Defending champion this week at Richmond, Guy Wall has become one of Joyner’s regular travel companions and was there when Joyner won The Parker Invitational at Pebble Beach in June.

Such is the bond that they have formed over the past five years, Wall and Joyner found something to joke about despite the gravity of the situation.

“I’ve always been amazed at what a good putter he is and he said, ‘I’m going to leave you my putter when I’m gone.’ I said, ‘I don’t want your putter, I just want your self-confidence,’” said Wall, who will have Joyner as a house guest when the pair play the Seamless Pymble Legends Pro-Am at Wall’s home club next Monday.

“We had a good laugh about that because he is the most self-confident person I know.

“He has taught me massive amounts over the last five years about golf. How to travel, how to rest. There are so many things I could write down about what he has taught me but the last 6-8 weeks he has taught me even more.

“Just seeing him go through this battle, being so positive. He’s unbelievable.”

For Joyner, golf is clearly secondary, but by the same token, it remains an essential component of what makes him tick.

“If there’s one thing this has taught me, it’s that you can’t think too far ahead or too far back because you gotta enjoy right now because that’s all I’ve got control over,” he added.

“And that’s why we’re here because I actually have control over it.

“When you travel the world playing this game, you have to overcome a lot of stuff to be able to perform.

“And one of my strengths is to be able to put stuff behind me, to reset, then to go again.”

– Additional reporting by Tony Webeck