Green will lead a bolstered Australian presence on the Champions Tour in 2024, Q School graduates Steve Allan and David Bransdon joining former winners Rod Pampling and Mark Hensby and Stuart Appleby and John Senden at this week’s Chubb Classic in Florida.

Michael Wright and Cameron Percy will also play the Champions Tour for the first time this year and would do worse than to match Green’s rookie season in 2023.

In 26 starts last season, Green had six top-10s and won $US1,221,196 to finish 15th on the moneylist.

To catch the likes of Steve Alker and Steve Stricker – the top two money-earners in 2023 – Green and coach Darrell Brown have looked into what separates them from the field… and the margins are slim.

“I’ve been going over last year with my coach and comparing my game to Steve Alker – who has been doing really well over there – and Steve Stricker.

“Working out where I’m not quite up to it and it’s one or two shots here and there. It might be half a shot in putting, a shot in scrambling.”

A three-time winner on both the DP World Tour and the European Legends Tour, Green had four top-five finishes in his rookie season in the US, his best finish a playoff defeat to Harrison Frazar at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

It was a further endorsement that, at 52 years of age, his game can match it with Hall of Famers and major champions.

“It was a bit of a learning curve but pleasantly surprised once I got over there how well I played and how competitive I was amongst those guys,” said Green, whose last hit-out before leaving Australia was a tie for sixth at the Vic Open.

“Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, all those guys that have been playing good enough golf to hover around the top 10 in the world, I was playing good enough golf to be hovering around with them most of the time and contending.

“I probably out-performed myself really. I thought if I finished top-36 I’d be having a great year and I finished 15th.

“With the experience that I gathered last year, if I go over there and play just as well, if not better, and learn from the experience of the things that didn’t go quite right, there’s probably no reason why I couldn’t go over and win more.“

Green begins his campaign alongside Tom Lehman and Rocco Mediate at 12:43am Saturday AEDT with Allan and Bransdon paired together in their Champions Tour debuts.

Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Round 1 tee times AEDT

Champions Tour
Chubb Classic
Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida
12:43am          Tom Lehman, Richard Green, Rocco Mediate
1:38am            Ernie Els, David Toms, Steven Alker (NZ)
2:22am            Ken Duke, Lee Janzen, Mark Hensby
2:33am            Steve Flesch, Rod Pampling, Paul Broadhurst
3:39am            Stuart Appleby, Notah Begay III, Scott Verplank
4:12am            Rob Labritz, John Senden, Jason Bohn
4:45am            Steve Allan, Michael Muehr, David Bransdon

Prize money: $US1.8 million
Defending champion: Bernhard Langer
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 4am-7am Saturday; Live 7am-9:30am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.