The past two PNG Senior Open winners, Peter Senior and Chris Taylor, are in the field for the $80,000 54-hole championship along with the Order of Merit champions for the past seven years, Andre Stolz and Brad Burns.

With a lone top-20 finish this season, Bruyeres is realistic about his prospects of winning but hopes to add to Will’s PNG Open triumph on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia last month in the country of his birth.

Gary’s parents first met playing golf in Goroka so the family connection to PNG runs deep, a connection he hopes to honour with a good showing in Lae.

“Hopefully I don’t ride his coattails because I want to be my own player,” Bruyeres said.

“I’ve had all Dad’s trophies here from when he played in Port Moresby so each day (during the PNG Open) I’d take a photo of one and I’d send it to him the night before.

“I think that gave him a bit of perspective of where he was and what PNG meant to the family.

“I was born there and spent a lot of time there working as an engineer so, to me, it’s one of those feelings when you go there of, I’m home.”

After moving to the Gold Coast at the age of five following the passing of his father in a car accident in PNG, Bruyeres continued his golf development at Burleigh Golf Club.

He hoped to pursue a PGA traineeship only to lose two fingers on his right hand in an accident that curtailed that dream.

It’s now been eight years since Bruyeres earned his PGA Legends Tour card and subsequently turned professional, his best result a runner-up finish at the Victor Harbor Legends Pro-Am in 2018.

A second operation on his right knee last year kept him off the golf course for six months but Bruyeres is excited about the prospect of playing more tournaments as his work life winds down.

“I was in a wheelchair for 14 weeks last year because of the knee so you lose a lot of strength and getting that back has been difficult,” he added.

“I’m looking forward to playing better golf. I’ve got no aspirations of winning the PNG Senior; there are too many young fellows out there now who just hit the ball further and harder and faster.

“But I’ll be competitive in my own mind, which is the best part about it.”

With work commitments and knee surgery limiting his Legends Tour appearances to just 21 in the previous two seasons, Bruyeres hopes to expand his playing schedule this season and into next year.

“When I first started, I travelled everywhere and then work commitments kicked in,” Bruyeres said.

“This year I’ve been able to negotiate a new contract and the knee’s getting better and I’m getting stronger, so I’ll be putting more time out in more tournaments.

“New South Wales I think is the next step after PNG so I’ll spend a bit of time down there playing.”

As for keeping up with his son, Bruyeres is more than content to revel in William’s success.

“He was 14 when he beat me for the first time,” Bruyeres recalled.

“It was at Logan City. It was in the first round of the club championships. I shot a 69. He shot a 68, so I remember it like it was yesterday.

“And I was the proudest person in that golf club.

“Then he took the No.1 Pennant spot off me and I became No.2 and, as a father, that’s what you want. You want them to succeed.”

Round 1 draw