Glory’s last shot?

For 43-year-old Australian teaching professional Craig Hocknull, the US PGA Championship represents a 21-year journey to prove he can still match it with golf’s elite.

Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and our own Jason Day will dominate the headlines at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis this week but the top 20 finishers at the PGA Professional Championship in June have the chance to live out dreams many thought may never be realised.

For Papua New Guinea-born Hocknull, who lived in Adelaide and Darwin before completing his schooling at the famed Kooralbyn International School west of the Gold Coast, it’s a maiden major championship some 25 years in the making.

A life on tour was very much the expectation after Hocknull played college golf against the likes of Woods, Zach Johnson and Trip and Hank Kuehne during four years at Jackson State University in Mississippi, winning the first college tournament he played in, the 1994 Coca-Cola Invitational.

But persistent wrist injuries set him down a path not as a player but that of a teacher.

As a member of the PGA of America, the PGA of Canada and PGA of Australia it has been a career in which he has excelled but the burning desire to compete inside the ropes never left.

In 2009 Hocknull dedicated himself to once again realising his goal of playing on tour and earned cards on both the Canadian and Web.com tours but a broken hand suffered in 2012 seemed destined to confine the Golf Digest 2015-2016 Best in State Teacher for Arizona to the driving range.

But two years ago he claimed the 2016 Southwest PGA Section championship and 2016 PGA of Canada Club Professional championship and in 2017 made his PGA Tour debut at the 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open, winning the Southwest PGA Club Professional championship last year also.

This week is not about proving how good he once was but showing the world that his best is still good enough.

“When I came back last year at the Phoenix Open I didn’t know whether I’d fit in and whether I could compete. I missed the cut there but what I learned was that I 100 per cent fit in,” Hocknull said.

“Because I took basically a 12-year gap from my college days of playing against Tiger Woods and Trip Kuehne and Hank Kuehne and Zach Johnson and those kind of guys, there are obviously questions about competing at that level.

“But over the past two years my game has been getting stronger and stronger and stronger and now I’m excited to play this PGA Championship and see what happens.

“The confidence that I gained from Phoenix was huge because I got to hit balls next to Phil Mickelson, play practice rounds with Webb Simpson. There wasn’t anything that I saw in their games that was so far above and beyond my own that it would have intimidated me.

“Now this year in the PGA I am more confident. I’m not going to be as nervous around all the crowds, I’m not going to be intimidated by the other players.

“I’m sure I will be nervous but that would be the same nervousness that I think anybody would experience in this type of event.

“I always felt like I was going to mature into the game on my own schedule and now that I’m 43 I’m playing the best golf that I’ve ever played and have the most confidence in my game and I’m healthy and strong.

“The game’s in a good place.”

Currently splitting his year between his role as PGA Director of Instruction at Saber Sports Trainer in Gilbert, Arizona and PGA Director of Instruction at Glenwild Golf Club and Spa in Park City, Utah, Hocknull is also famous for his Outback Golf Show, showcasing his skills as a trick-shot exponent whilst dressed in khaki and laying on the thickest Australian accent he can muster.

His remarkable story has captured the imagination of the golf media and given him a chance to reflect on the circuitous journey he has taken to join such elite company.

“I played a few mini tour events the summer that I graduated which was about the time Tiger Woods came out and said, ‘Hello world’,” said Hocknull, who three years ago seriously considered playing left-handed because of persistent injuries.

“I thought I was going to be off to the races but continued to get wrist injuries but I wanted to stay close to the game.

“Playing your first major after such a long time, there’s always a little bit of a question mark but I have less questions as to whether I can compete at this level.”