As Kiwi Ryan Fox returns to defend his title at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, Micheluzzi will also draw on the positive memories of his performance in challenging conditions 12 months ago.

Ranked 760th in the world when the 2022 Dunhill Links began, Micheluzzi finished as the leading Aussie that week.

Two weeks later, he won the WA PGA Championship at Kalgoorlie, the first of three wins that would see him claim the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

That paved the way for the Victorian to make his PGA TOUR debut, play in two major championships and get his game ready to join the DP World Tour for the 2024 season.

That same opportunity is now available to 10 of Micheluzzi’s countrymen this week, nine of whom are in the field by virtue of their finish on the 2022-2023 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

It is just one of many pathways now available to players on the Australasian Tour and one which Micheluzzi has shown can elevate players to the game’s highest level.

Even this week’s defending champion used the Australasian Tour to catapult himself into the game’s upper echelons.

The 2014 WA Open champion and 2019 Order of Merit winner, Fox was second on the DP World Tour Order of Merit in 2022 and rose to 31st in the world on the back of his BMW PGA Championship win a fortnight ago.

Now the 36-year-old wants to make sure he is on the International Team at next year’s Presidents Cup.

“Going to help myself out; going to have my PGA TOUR card next year,” said Fox, who was a surprise omission from the 2022 Presidents Cup.

“That may is have hurt me slightly not being a PGA TOUR member.

“The Presidents Cup probably doesn’t have quite the same aura around it as the Ryder Cup does, but it’s certainly something I’d really love to play in.

“I know the International Team has not had the greatest record, so I would like to try to get on that team and maybe grab a little bit of history as well.”

It is a potentially life-changing week too for Robyn Choi on the Epson Tour.

The Gold Coaster enters the season-ending Tour Championship 11th in the Race For The Card standings, just $200 from one of the 10 cards on offer.

As fellow Australian Gabi Ruffels waits to be crowned the Order of Merit winner for 2023, Choi needs to extend her cut-streak of 26 straight events to play her way onto the LPGA Tour in 2024.

“Out here, every single dollar is very important, so I am just trying to make the cut every week,” explained Choi, who is a chance of obtaining an LPGA Tour card with a solo 60th-place finish or better.

“To get into the top 10, you need to try and get every dollar you can. If I had a bad round, I had to remind myself it wasn’t over and I can still make my way up the leaderboard.

“Obviously, I don’t have a win this year, but I have given myself a few good chances.

“The goal was to have a win this year, but at the end of the day, the top 10 is my ultimate goal, and I am really close to that.”

Elsewhere this week the Morgan boys, Jed and Lincoln, are among the 15 Aussies playing the International Series Singapore on the Asian Tour, amateur June Song makes her LPGA Tour debut at The Ascendant and Curtis Luck, Dimi Papadatos, Brett Drewitt and Rhein Gibson wrap up the Korn Ferry Tour season with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Indiana.

Round 1 tee times AEDT

DP World Tour
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
Old Course St Andrews, Carnoustie & Kingsbarns, Scotland
7pm*                    Nick Bachem, Lincoln Tighe
7.11pm*              Mikael Lindberg, Thomas Power-Horan
7.22pm                Ryan Fox (NZ), Matt Kuchar
7.33pm*              Manu Gandas, Haydn Barron
7.44pm                Dylan Naidoo, Andrew Martin
7.55pm*              Nathan Kimsey, Jason Scrivener
8.06pm                Daniel Hillier (NZ), Justin Warren
8.17pm*              Maximilian Kieffer, David Micheluzzi
8.28pm                Scott Jamieson, Nathan Barbieri
8.39pm*              Daniel Gale, Tapio Pulkkanen
9.01pm*              Jeong weon Ko, Aaron Wilkin
9.23pm*              Jaco Prinsloo, Christopher Wood

Defending champion: Ryan Fox
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 10.30pm-3am Thursday; Live 10pm-3am Friday; Live 12am-3am Sunday; Live 9.30pm-3am Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

PGA TOUR
Sanderson Farms Championship
Country Club of Jackson, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
11.22pm              Nate Lashley, Cameron Percy, Henrik Norlander
12.17am              Greg Chalmers, Will Gordon, Ben Taylor
4.06am                Chris Stroud, Sam Ryder, Harrison Endycott
4.28am                Luke List, Lucas Herbert, Jim Herman

Defending champion: Mackenzie Hughes
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 3am-5am Friday on Fox Sports 507; Live 7am-10am Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 3am-5am Saturday on Fox Sports 507; Live 7am-10am Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 7am-10am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

LPGA Tour
The Ascendant LPGA Benefiting Volunteers of America
Old American Golf Club, The Colony, Texas
12.31am              Lindy Duncan, Sarah Kemp, Elizabeth Szokol
12.31am*            Hannah Green, Ally Ewing, Hae Ran Ryu
1.04am*              Luna Soborn Galmes, Jill McGill, June Song (a)
5.32am*              Lucy Li, Su Oh, Jennifer Song
5.43am*              Nicole Broch Estrup, Jennifer Chang, Karis Davidson
6.05am                Elinor Sudow, Sarah Jane Smith, Sadena Parks

Defending champion: Charley Hull
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 3am-5am Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 7am-10am Saturday on Fox Sports 505; Live 6.30am-8am Sunday on Fox Sports 505; 4.30pm-6.30pm Monday on Fox Sports 503.

Asian Tour
International Series Singapore
Tanah Merah Country Club (Tampines Course), Singapore
10am*                  James Leow, Chanat Sakulpolphaisan, Lincoln Morgan (a)
10.10am              Nick Voke (NZ), Douglas Klein, Abiel Lim
10.30am*            Charl Schwartzel, Scott Hend, Richard T. Lee
10.50am              Jack Thompson, Suteepat Prateeptienchai, Bjorn Hellgren
10.50am*            Jediah Morgan, Jazz Janewattananond, Kieran Vincent
11am                    Kevin Yuan, Viraj Madappa, Atiruj Winaicharoenchai
11.10am              Natipong Srithong, Andrew Dodt, Veer Ahlawat
11.20am              Josh Younger, Chonlatit Chuenboonngam, Hung Chien-yao
11.20am*            Yuto Katsuragawa, Todd Sinnott, Jbe Kruger
11.30am              Ben Campbell (NZ), Prom Meesawat, Honey Baisoya
11.30am*            Zach Murray, Taehee Lee, Chikkarangappa S.
11.40am              Terry Pilkadaris, Dodge Kemmer, SSP Chawrasia
3pm                      John Lyras, Sanghyun Park, David Drysdale
3.40pm                David Puig, Travis Smyth, Chase Koepka
4pm                      Sangmoon Bae, Brendan Jones, Danthai Boonma
4.20pm                Mardan Mamat, Shiv Kapur, Marcus Fraser

Defending champion: Nitithorn Thippong
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 5pm-9pm Thursday, Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 5pm-6pm Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 2pm-6pm Sunday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.

Ladies European Tour
Aramco Team Series Presented By PIF
Hong Kong Golf Club, Hong Kong
Australasians in the field: Stephanie Kyriacou, Kirsten Rudgeley, Momoka Kobori (NZ)

Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil

Japan Golf Tour
ACN Championship Golf Tournament
10am*                  Yoshitaka Takeya, Michio Matsumura, Andrew Evans
11am                    Anthony Quayle, Takahiro Hataji, Tomohiro Ishizaka
11.30am              Brad Kennedy, Yuki Shino, Takashi Ogiso
12.20pm*            Yui Ueda, Dylan Perry, Tatsunori Nukaga
12.30pm*            Shintaro Ban, Adam Bland

Defending champion: Shugo Imahira
Past Aussie winners: Peter Thomson (1971), Graham Marsh (1972, 1974, 1982), Brian Jones (1985, 1987, 1988)

Korn Ferry Tour
Korn Ferry Tour Championship
Victoria National Golf Club, Newburgh, Indiana, USA
11.38pm              Adrian Dumont de Chassart, Curtis Luck, Rafael Campos
1.06am*              Jamie Lovemark, Kevin Dougherty, Dimi Papadatos
1.17am                Rhein Gibson, Mac Meissner, Matt McCarty
1.28am                Brett Drewitt, Taylor Dickson, Cody Blick

Defending champion: Justin Suh
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 5am-7am Friday; Live 3am-7am Saturday, Sunday; Live 4am-7am Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

PGA TOUR Champions
Constellation Furyk and Friends
Timuquana Country Club, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Australasians in the field: Steven Alker (NZ), Stuart Appleby, Richard Green, Mark Hensby, David McKenzie, Rod Pampling, John Senden

Defending champion: Steve Stricker
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: 10am-11.30am Saturday, Sunday; 11am-12.30pm Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

Epson Tour
Epson Tour Championship
LPGA National (Jones Course), Daytona Beach, Florida
11pm*                  Hira Naveed, Tsai Ching Tseng, Alana Uriell
4.03am                Jiwon Jeon, Natasha Andrea Oon, Gabriela Ruffels
4.14am*              Jenny Bae, Robyn Choi, Nataliya Guseva
4.25am*              Amelia Garvey (NZ), Kirsten Gillman, Kaleigh Telfer
4.36am*              Tzu-Yi Chang, Cassie Porter, Kenzie Wright

Defending champion: Jaravee Boonchant
Past Aussie winners: Kristie Smith (2010)

LET Access Series
Lombardia Ladies Open LETAS
Golf Club Varese, Varese, Italy
5.40pm*              Alice Gotbring, Victoria Fricot, Vicky Prietzel (a)
6pm                      Kelsey Bennett, Lejan Lewthwaite, Isabell Elkstrom
10pm                    Mayka Hoogeboom, Amy Walsh, Ellen Huthinson-Kay

Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil

Photo: Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images