For South Australian Professional Jason Norris the 2017 Fiji International title came with an impressive winner’s cheque, but more importantly, full exemption on the European Tour, Asian Tour and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.

Norris begins his European journey this week teeing up alongside the likes of Alex Noren, Chris Wood and Bernd Wiesberger at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland where he’ll celebrate his 45^th birthday.

After a whirlwind couple of weeks, Norris is back on Tour at the in the scenic Crans Montana Golf Course, with the Swiss Alps as a backdrop.

“I only really got back in to golf a couple of weeks ago and last week was a bit more practice so that was good, but it hasn’t been normal that’s for sure,” said Norris who won the Fiji International, the most significant victory of his career, by four shots in August.

“There’s been a lot of other things but it’s good to get back in to it now.”

He won’t be going in to his first European Tour event since winning the Fiji International un-prepared having played practice rounds and received the inside word from the runner-up of the European Masters last year, fellow Aussie Scott Hend.

With a host of other Australian regulars on the circuit, he certainly won’t be short of a helping hand.

“Scotty Hend and I played a couple of rounds after Fiji and he’s been fantastic, he’s been around for a few years now, I’m definitely going to pick the brains of Frase (Marcus Fraser), Hendy and Rummy (Brett Rumford).

“They’re all great, they all help you out where they can.”

It’s the beginning of Norris’ grand plans for his playing future who will dip his toe in to the European waters starting in Switzerland and the KLM Open in the Netherlands next week, before tackling the Tour fulltime in 2018.

“We’re looking at moving over next year but I’ll play a couple in Europe this year, I don’t think I can get into the Race to Dubai.

“I think you’ve got to be top-60 or 70 on their Order of Merit to qualify whereas I’m 129^th so that’s probably a bit out of reach, I’d need a few hundred thousand more Euro.”

In stark contrast, Norris is inside the top-10 on the Asian Tour Order of Merit thanks to his AU$250,000 winnings, putting him in the frame for a start to the US$7,000,000 CIMB Classic, one of the richest events on the Asian Tour and co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR.

“I’ll head to Asia and play two full field events and that will qualify me for the CIMB if I’m top-10 on the Order of Merit, and then the World Golf Championship – HSBC Champions tournament if I’m top-4.

“I’m seventh there at the moment so that’s the goal in Asia and then I’ll come back for the remainder of the Aussie Tour.”

Seeing his name towards the top of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, he’s second behind ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth winner Brett Rumford, was always in the plans for Norris who began to see scope for improvement in his game at last year’s Australian PGA Championship.

He now has his sights on taking out his home Tour’s Order of Merit and will aim to carry on that campaign at the AU$400,000 NSW Open from 16 – 19 November.

“I set a goal with my caddie at the Australian PGA last year when I felt a few good things happening, I wanted to be top-3 in the Order of Merit and try to get to a World Golf Championship,” Norris added.

“Now obviously after the Fiji win I can aim a bit higher.”