However, this week the Tasmanian local will be back to his “real job”, with Goggin turning 50 on June 13 and successfully pre-qualifying for the US Senior Open at historic Newport Country Club.

One of eight Australians in the field, Goggin’s chances are buoyed by his recent play at home on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, including a third behind Order of Merit champion Kazuma Kobori at the Webex Players Series Victoria.

His place as one of the “young guys” on the over-50s PGA TOUR Champions circuit also makes him one of the longer players in Rhode Island this week.

“Most of the guys are still hanging in there pretty well but I’ve always been relatively long so I’m still up there. I wouldn’t say I’m one of the shorter guys that’s for sure,” Goggin told Australian media on Wednesday.

Believing his multiple injuries that curtailed regular appearances in the latter part of his regular Tour career has him refreshed and ready to go, Goggin is thriving in the familiarity of the names and faces playing the senior game.

Experiencing the question of “What are you doing here?” from the likes of Ernie Els this week that are common place for each over-50s debutant, Goggin is joined in the field by Stuart Appleby, Greg Chalmers, Richard Green, Mark Hensby, Rod Pampling, Cameron Percy and Michael Wright.

It is a cohort of Australians he is far more familiar with than those at home when making his occasional competitive appearances to sharpen his game for the second career of senior golf.

“It’s kind of funny. I’ve been playing a few events down in Australia, I literally don’t know anyone. Everyone’s like 21, 22, 23, there’s no old guys,” he said.

“It’s kind of funny to come out here… it feels like a time capsule.

“I played a practice round with ‘Apples’ (Stuart Appleby) today, I think I’m going to play with ‘Wrighty’ (Michael Wright) tomorrow and then I’ve seen (Greg) Chalmers and Richard Green. I saw a whole bunch of the guys, so it’s good to see them again.”

Reflecting on playing with the “kids” of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, Goggin noted his third at Rosebud as “what we love and what we hate” as a professional golfer.

The one-time world No.48 instantly admits that near misses never fade completely from memory, including playing in the final group at The Open alongside Tom Watson in 2009 where he finished fifth.

“The British Open, I think about that all the time still because it would’ve had such a huge impact on my career,” he said.

“It’s the great opportunities that you lose that keep you up at night and do forever.”

Excited at the prospect of competing once again at a level where he might have the advantage of relative youth, Goggin knows like that week, that a win at Newport would greatly change his future plans.

However, even when preparing for a senior major, the future of his other work is never far from mind.

Goggin revealed the hope to open a loop of holes at Seven Mile Beach in November this year, while is also in the final stages of a council application to build a second golf course on the site.

“When I go to Hobart, it’s basically just flat-out meetings after meetings for Seven Mile Beach and then I’m always waking up to a few emails,” Goggin said of his time spent at his US base in North Carolina.

“Actually, the most stressful part of my day is about 5am when I first check the phone, just waiting to see all the flood of emails from Hobart. Then there’s a quick panic about stuff I’ve got to do, but then realising there’s not much I can do about it now because it’s 10 o’clock at night in Hobart.”

Switching off that course builder part of his brain and focusing only on competing will be a unique challenge for Goggin amongst a stacked field of Hall of Famers this week.

Yet his intimidate knowledge of course design could help around one of the original five USGA member clubs where Goggin’s links golf career highlight and power could be significant assets.

“It’s very much like UK golf. It’s not really a links golf course, but it has the same feeling across the land,” he said of Newport. “It’s not dissimilar to the Mornington Peninsula in a lot of respects in the way that the hills sort of flow.

“There’s a lot of 430, 420-metre par-4s. We played a couple yesterday into the westerly breeze and it was four straight 4-irons – and I’m one of the longer players – into four holes.

“There were guys hitting woods into a lot of holes, which is pretty crazy.

“I’m sure they might adjust that coming into the tournament, but if it gets windy it’s going to be tricky.”

The US Senior Open is live on Fox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo.

The champion in 2019, Green closed with a round of 1-under 71 on Sunday at Sahalee Country Club, finishing level with Lee (74) at 4-over for the championship and tied for 24th.

Former Gold Coast high schooler Amy Yang (72) claimed her first major championship by three strokes at the event that marked the end to the two-year Paris 2024 qualification period.

Although the Australian team will not be officially announced until later this week, Green and Lee can now both look forward to another Olympic campaign given they are both inside the top 15 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

A two-time winner this season, Green will first return home to Perth before heading to France for The Amundi Evian Championship starting July 11.

“Getting the opportunity in Tokyo was an amazing experience,” said Green.

“I’m super excited for Paris to be alongside Minjee as well. Both from Perth and both played junior golf together so it’s really cool for us to both be there. Even her brother (Min Woo Lee) is in the team.

“I think we have really good vibes for the Olympics, and I’m excited to get to Le Golf National.”

Paris will represent Lee’s third straight Olympic appearance, the 28-year-old also excited to share the Olympic experience with her brother for the first time.

“Both of us will be there and it’s kind of nice. I might be watching him maybe on the weekend if I go in a little bit earlier,” said Lee.

“It’ll be pretty exciting to represent our country out at the Olympics and it’s always such a great honour to be able to do that.

“Really looking forward to it.”

Although an Aussie assault never materialised at the Women’s PGA, there were a host of top-10 finishes around the globe.

Mark Hensby (66) produced one of the rounds of the day to climb into a share of third at the Dick’s Open on the PGA TOUR Champions, one clear of fellow Australian Steve Allan (70) who was tied for sixth.

Deyen Lawson finished one shot shy of winner Rahil Gangjee at the Asian Development Tour event in Malaysia and Cameron Smith was the best of the Aussies at LIV Golf Nashville, finishing tied for ninth and nine shots back of winner Tyrrell Hatton.

Photo: Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Results

LPGA Tour
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Washington
1          Amy Yang                    70-68-71-72—281       $US1.56m
T24      Hannah Green              71-77-73-71—292       $91,079
T24      Minjee Lee                   74-72-72-74—292       $91,079
T46      Lydia Ko (NZ)                75-73-76-73—297       $37,675
T46      Gabriela Ruffels           74-74-76-73—297       $37,675
T52      Stephanie Kyriacou      74-69-78-77—298       $29,771
T60      Grace Kim                    73-75-77-74—299       $23,969
MC       Sarah Kemp                 75-76—151
MC       Robyn Choi                  75-76—151
MC       Hira Naveed                 82-83—165

PGA TOUR
Travelers Championship
TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut
1          Scottie Scheffler           65-64-64-65—258       $US3m
Won on the first hole of sudden-death playoff
T39      Adam Scott                  74-67-67-64—272       $85,000
T44      Jason Day                    71-70-64-69—274       $63,000
T48      Cam Davis                   65-71-69-70—275       $49,286

DP World Tour
KLM Open
The International, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1          Guido Migliozzi            68-69-66-70—273       €396,532.65
T51      Andrew Martin             71-71-70-73—285       €8,363.84
T51      Tom Power Horan        73-66-76-70—285       €8,363.84
MC       Haydn Barron               75-69—144
MC       David Micheluzzi          81-76—157
MC       Sam Jones (NZ)            83-77—160

Asian Tour
Kolon Korea Open
Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, Korea
1          Minkyu Kim                  70-66-71-66—273       $US379,650.72
T28      Travis Smyth                72-73-75-68—288       $5,854.22
T51      Brendan Jones             72-71-79-71—293       $3,576.31
63        Jack Thompson             71-73-78-79—301       $2,854.97
MC       Kevin Chun (NZ)           71-75—146
MC       Junseok Lee                  70-77—147
MC       Todd Sinnott                69-78—147
MC       Wonjoon Lee                70-78—148
MC       Kevin Yuan                   75-76—151

LIV Golf
LIV Golf Nashville
The Grove, College Grove, Tennessee
1          Tyrrell Hatton               65-64-65—194 $US4m
T9        Cameron Smith            69-65-69—203 $396,875
T18      Marc Leishman            69-69-69—207 $230,000
T40      Matt Jones                   71-72-68—211 $134,000
T48      Lucas Herbert               71-73-70—214 $120,000
54        Danny Lee (NZ)            75-73-70—218 $50,000

PGA TOUR Champions
DICK’S Open
En-Joie GC, Endicott, New York
1          Padraig Harrington      68-65-68—201 $US315,000
T3        Mark Hensby               70-67-66—203 $126,000
T6        Steve Allan                   65-69-70—204 $71,400
T13      David Bransdon           68-67-71—206 $39,900
20        Cameron Percy             69-69-70—208 $27,720
T21      Rod Pampling              71-70-68—209 $23,888
T29      Michael Wright            68-69-74—211 $15,210
T44      Richard Green              70-68-76—214 $7,980
T65      John Senden                74-73-72—219 $2,327
T70      Greg Chalmers             76-73-72—221 $1,785

Ladies European Tour
Tipsport Czech Ladies Open
Royal Beroun Golf Club, Czech Republic
1          Marta Martin                69-67-63—199 €45,000
T13      Kelsey Bennett             71-70-67—208 €5,490
T33      Kirsten Rudgeley          70-71-70—211 €2,370
T54      Momoka Kobori (NZ)   69-73-72—214 €1,062
T63      Amy Walsh                   74-69-73—216 €795
MC       Whitney Hillier             73-78—151

Korn Ferry Tour
Compliance Solutions Championship
Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, Norman, Oklahoma
1          John Pak                      64-66-65-70—265       $US180,000
70        Tim Wilkinson (NZ)       69-67-78-78—292       $3,920
MC       Aiden Didone              71-74—145
MC       Dimi Papadatos           70-75—145
MC       Rhein Gibson               73-74—147
MC       Brett Drewitt                73-77—150
WD      Steven Bowditch          76

Asian Development Tour
PKNS Selangor Masters
Kelab Golf Seri Selangor, Malaysia
1          Rahil Gangjee               66-66-67-73—272       $US30,625
2          Deyen Lawson             69-71-64-69—273       $20,125
T19      Jared Edwards             69-71-74-71—285       $1,869.58
T38      Marcus Fraser              73-71-75-71—290       $1,242.50
MC       Lachlan Barker              76-71—147
MC       Doug Klein                   70-79—149
MC       Josiah Edwards (a)        74-82—156

Challenge Tour
Blot Open de Bretagne
Golf Bluegreen de Pléneuf Val André, Pléneuf, France
1          John Parry                    64-67-63-68—262       €43,200
T40      Connor McKinney        69-69-69-72—279       €1,620
MC       Blake Windred             74-67—141
MC       Hayden Hopewell        71-74—145
DQ       Jeff Guan                      70

Epson Tour
Island Resort Championship
Sweetgrass Golf Club, Harris, Michigan
Event reduced to 36 holes due to rain
1          Soo Bin Joo                  67-69—136     $US39,375
T33      Fiona Xu (NZ)               74-67—141     $1,875
T41      Cassie Porter                71-71—142     $1,359
T52      Maddison Hinson-Tolchard      71-72—143     $964
T52      Amelia Garvey (NZ)      70-73—143     $964

PGA TOUR Americas
The Beachlands Victoria Open
Uplands Golf Club, Victoria, British Columbia
1          Frederik Kjettrup          63-64-64-68—259
T22      Harry Hillier (NZ)          64-70-65-69—268
T48      Grant Booth                 67-67-72-67—273
MC       Karl Vilips                     70-71—141
MC       Charlie Hillier (NZ)        74-69—143

Legends Tour
OFX Irish Legends
Seapoint Golf Links, Co Louth, Ireland
1          Adilson Da Silva           70-72-67—209
Won on the third hole of sudden-death playoff
T16      Michael Long (NZ)        69-73-73—215
T22      Peter Fowler                 73-72-72—217
T28      Scott Hend                   78-74-66—218
T36      Michael Campbell (NZ) 72-75-73—220
T43      Peter O’Malley             73-77-72—222

LET Access Series
Santander Golf Tour – AVILA
Naturavila Golf, Spain
1          Helen Briem (a)            70-62-70—202
T14      Hanee Song (NZ)          73-70-68—211
T14      Stephanie Bunque        70-67-74—211
MC       Munchin Keh (NZ)        73-73—146
MC       Belinda Ji (a)                 73-74—147
MC       Laura Hoskin (NZ)        75-75—150
MC       Wenyung Keh (NZ)       73-77—150

The Australian Golf team to represent their country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be formally announced on June 29, the women’s qualification period closing at the completion of this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

An absorbing US Open won by Bryson DeChambeau signalled the end to the three-year qualification period for this Olympic cycle for the men’s game. Day and Lee both qualified for the Australian team by virtue of being among the top 59 players eligible for selection on the Official World Golf Ranking.

Day, who was eligible for the 2016 Olympics at Rio de Janeiro but declined for family reasons, is ranked No.24 in the world despite missing the cut at Pinehurst.

It would have required something extraordinary for Lee to be unseated, a tie for 21st solidifying his spot at No.36 in the rankings and a likely Olympic debut.

Day had not publicly declared his Olympic intentions until after The Masters Tournament in April, declaring that if he qualified he would tee it up at Le Golf National.

“I’m looking forward to it. I think I made a bit of a mistake not going down to Rio, even though part of it was family related,” Day said.

“I kind of missed out on that, and I probably should have gone. But if I get the opportunity, I’m looking forward to going.”

Lee has never shied away from his Olympic ambition.

His older sister, Minjee, is on the verge of selection in her third straight Olympics, Min Woo’s qualification paving the way for the pair to join a rich history of siblings to have represented Australia at the Olympic Games.

“I would love to represent Australia. It’s one of the goals I’ve had from the last year or so when the talk started happening,” said Lee, who has confirmed his defence of his Australian PGA Championship defence at Royal Queensland in November.

Marcus Fraser and Scott Hend were Australia’s men’s representatives when golf made its Olympic return in 2016 while Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman competed at Tokyo 2020.

Fraser’s tie for fifth in 2016 is Australia’s best result in the men’s golf competition, Hannah Green’s narrowly missing out on a medal at Tokyo, her tie for fifth Australia’s best result in the women’s competition.

The men’s Olympic golf competition will be staged August 1-4 with the women’s competition to take place from August 7-10.

Kim began the final round at Blythefield Country Club with a five-stroke lead, an advantage that had been erased completely by the time she stepped onto the fifth tee.

As American Ally Ewing strung four straight birdies together from the third hole, Kim stumbled out of the blocks with back-to-back bogeys.

She matched Ewing’s birdie on six to retain a share of the lead yet her greatest challengers would emerge from back-nine charges by Lilia Vu and Lexi Thompson.

Vu’s bogey-free 7-under 65 would be the best of the day and allowed her to set the clubhouse mark at 16-under par.

Thompson (68) played the back nine in 4-under to also reach 16-under par as 23-year-old Kim showed impressive composure to stay in contention.

She dropped to 15-under with a bogey on nine but made birdie at the par-5 14th and numerous par saves to arrive at the 72nd hole tied for the lead.

A tee shot into the fairway bunker at the par-5 closer forced Kim to lay up and she had a lengthy putt from the back fringe to win in regulation.

Par for @gracekimeyy on 18 means we've got a playoff coming up!!!

Grace, @Lexi and @TheLiliaVu will be teeing it up in a sudden-death playoff shortly 🚨 pic.twitter.com/q1xJq6uBJm

— LPGA (@LPGA) June 16, 2024

That attempt just missed on the low side to close out a round of 1-oover 73, Thompson’s closing birdie sending all three players back to the 18th tee.

Again, Kim had a putt to win at the first playoff hole with an eagle try from just off the front edge of the green but had to hole a three-footer for birdie to match by both Thompson and Vu.

Power behind @gracekimeyy's second shot of the playoff 💪 pic.twitter.com/r2qacywYCZ

— LPGA (@LPGA) June 16, 2024

At the second playoff hole, Kim needed to hole a six-footer to stay in the playoff but an awkward lie right of the fairway and subsequent lay-up at the third playoff hole – the par-5 fourth – opened the door for Vu to clinch victory by getting up-and-down for birdie from the greenside bunker.

Despite the disappointment of falling just short, Kim acknowledged that it is another step forward in her young career.

“Going the three playoff holes with the Player of the Year last year, two major champions and obviously Lexi just being an icon for women’s golf says a lot about my game I guess,” said Kim, who now moves on to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club.

“Obviously didn’t get it done. Yeah, it sucks, but I think I can see myself I guess in the future as well. Just how much I’ve grown.

“It’s only my second year out, and to be in this position it’s, as you can tell, overwhelming.

“All the credit goes to my team to push me this far.

“To get to these opportunities is, you know, unbelievable. To be able to play against these players in certain conditions and playoff for three holes, I think we all know we played some good damn golf.”

Kim wasn’t the only WPGA Tour of Australasia member with a top-10 finish this past week.

West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley continues to build towards a breakthrough win on the Ladies European Tour, finishing tied for sixth at the Ladies Italian Open as Whitney Hillier made an impressive return in her first LET start since last July.

An Aussie charge never materialised at the US Open where Min Woo Lee’s tie for 23rd was the best result, Bryson DeChambeau producing an extraordinary sand save on the 72nd hole to edge Rory McIlroy by a shot and claim his second US Open.

Photo: Raj Mehta/Getty Images

Results

US Open
Pinehurst Resort (No.2 Cse), Raleigh, North Carolina
1          Bryson DeChambeau   67-69-67-71—274       $US4.3 million
T21      Min Woo Lee                73-69-72-71—285       $203,607
T32      Cameron Smith            71-72-72-72—287       $105,775
T32      Adam Scott                  70-72-76-69—287       $105,775
T56      Ryan Fox (NZ)               73-72-76-71—292       $43,676
MC       Jason Scrivener            74-72—146
MC       Jason Day                    71-77—148
MC       Cam Davis                   77-72—149

LPGA Tour
Meijer LPGA Classic
Blythefield Country Club, Belmont, Michigan
1          Lilia Vu                         69-70-68-65—272       $US450,000
Won on third hole of sudden-death playoff
T2        Grace Kim                    68-65-66-73—272       $234,649
T17      Hira Naveed                 69-70-71-68—278       $33,803
T17      Gabriela Ruffels           68-73-68-69—278       $33,803
MC       Robyn Choi                  73-70—143
MC       Minjee Lee                   72-78—150

Korean PGA Tour/Japan Golf Tour
Hana Bank Invitational
Namchuncheon CC, Chuncheon, South Korea
1          Takashi Ogiso              67-69-66-68—270       ¥28.02m
MC       Anthony Quayle           73-70—143
MC       Junseok Lee                  71-74—145
MC       Matthew Griffin            70-75—145

Ladies European Tour
Ladies Italian Open
Golf Nazionale, Italy
1          Amy Taylor                   70-67-69—206 €45,000
T6        Kirsten Rudgeley          66-74-70—210 €8,640
T32      Whitney Hillier             70-71-76—217 €2,499
T45      Amy Walsh                   74-69-76—219 €1,504.29
T45      Kelsey Bennett             73-74-72—219 €1,504.29
T62      Momoka Kobori (NZ)   74-72-78—224 €855

Korn Ferry Tour
Wichita Open
Crestview Country Club, Wichita, Kansas
1          Taylor Dickson             64-64-68-65—261      
MC       Tim Wilkinson (NZ)       71-68—139
MC       Rhein Gibson               73-68—141
MC       Brett Drewitt                74-68—142
MC       Dimi Papadatos           70-72—142
MC       Daniel Gale                  74-70—144
MC       Steven Bowditch          79-75—154

Challenge Tour
Kaskáda Golf Challenge
Golf Resort Kaskáda, Brno, Czech Republic
1          Hamish Brown             64-69-70-63—266       €43,200
T23      Blake Windred             68-70-71-68—277       €2,403
MC       Connor McKinney        69-72—141
MC       Jeff Guan                      69-73—142
MC       Tom Power Horan        76-70—146
MC       Hayden Hopewell        72-76—148

Epson Tour
Otter Creek Championship
Otter Creek Golf Course, Columbus, Indiana
1          Savannah Vilaubi          67-68-71—206 $US45,000
Won on the second hole of sudden-death playoff
T47      Cassie Porter                73-71-72—216 $1,335
MC       Amelia Garvey (NZ)      73-75—148
MC       Fiona Xu (NZ)               75-75—150
MC       Amy Chu                      73-77—150
MC       Maddison Hinson-Tolchard      71-79—150
WD      Su Oh              78

LET Access Series
Amundi Czech Ladies Challenge
Panorama Golf Resort, Czech Republic
1          Helen Briem (a)            72-68-73—213 ——
T9        Hanee Song (NZ)          69-76-74—219 €1,317.50
T13      Stephanie Bunque        72-72-77—221 €1,147.50        
T18      Munchin Keh (NZ)        76-74-72—222 €850
T25      Wenyung Keh (NZ)       78-73-73—224 €684.25
MC       Belinda Ji (a)                 77-80—157

Legends Tour
Paul Lawrie Match Play
Hanbury Manor Marriott Hotel & Country Club, Hertfordshire
Final
Angel Cabrera def James Kingston 3&1
Quarter-finals
Angel Cabrera def Michael Long 2&1
Bradley Dredge def Scott Hend 2 up
Round 3
Michael Long def Marc Farry 2&1
Scott Hend def Peter Fowler 3&2
Round 2
Michael Long def Michael Jonzon 3&2
Scott Hend def Adilson da Silva 2&1
Peter Fowler def David Gilford at 19th hole
Round 1
Michael Long def Andrew Raitt 1 up
Peter Fowler def Clark Dennis 4&3
Robert Coles def Peter O’Malley 2&1
Scott Hend def Jean Francois Remesy 3&2