At 232 in the world he is ranked 12th among all Australian male players on the Official World Golf Ranking and is rapidly climbing towards a position inside the top 60 on the European Tour Order of Merit, the select few who will contest the rich DP World Tour Championship at season’s end.

Yet Maverick Antcliff’s meteoric rise has been very much under the radar.

Which, according to his coach Grant Field, is exactly how he likes it.

“He doesn’t seek out the fanfare,” Field says.

“There are a lot of guys who would go looking for more attention but he just does his thing.”

After four years at Augusta State University where rounds at Augusta National are part of the package, Antcliff turned professional in June 2016 but not even a top-15 finish at the 2018 Australian Open at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney did much to elevate his standing among golf fans.

Also well away from the limelight, it was a snap decision to spend 2019 on the China Golf Tour that would thrust the now 27-year-old into the upper echelon of world golf.

In the first 10 events he played in China last year Antcliff won three times, had three further top-five finishes and was top 10 on three other occasions. His worst result in that stretch was a tie for 17th.

It ensured he was the runaway winner of the China Golf Tour Order of Merit and earned status on the European Tour in 2020, status he is now capitalising on.

Sporting a significantly shorter haircut coming out of lockdown than the long locks he had been previously identified by, Antcliff struggled early in the resumption but consecutive top-10 finishes – capped with a tie for third at last week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open – has put him in position to secure his immediate future in Europe.

“He’s just kept getting better, and that’s something a lot of guys stop doing once they get to a certain point,” adds Field.

“Taking the journey he has will hold him in way better stead as he keeps moving forward.

“The life skills he’s learnt by going to college and then going to China, travelling to places where it isn’t that flash and he hasn’t had good facilities and he hasn’t had courtesy cars or nice hotels or known where he was going to eat… You’ve got to manage all those things and it’s really important in their growth and development.

“Last year in China he said, ‘I’m perfectly comfortable where I’m at right now.’ It’s not a race to get to the top, it’s about taking each step along the way.

“I messaged him last week saying that I know he wanted to win but this is another step in the right direction.

“He’s certainly by no means the finished product but he’s definitely proving himself now to be a world-class golfer.”

Tied for the lead through 36 holes in Northern Ireland, Antcliff began the final round one-shot off the lead before finishing three back of winner John Catlin. Coming on the back of his first European Tour top-10 a week earlier in Portugal, Field knows it is part of the progression towards that breakthrough win.

Perhaps even this week at the Aberdeen Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

“He’s played with enough guys now to know his game is on par if not better than a lot of those guys. Now he’s got a little bit of evidence to back that up,” Field says.

“Confidence can come from different places but one place is knowing that you can handle a certain situation. Each situation is different but when he’s near the top of the leaderboard again it’s going to be similar to what he went through last week.

“The next time that happens – hopefully it’s this week – he’s going to be better equipped to deal with it.”

Round 1 tee times (AEST)

European Tour
Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open
The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
5.41pm*              Min Woo Lee, Pablo Larrazabal, Thomas Bjorn
6.03pm*              Jason Scrivener, Ryan Fox, Jazz Janewattananond
9.16pm*              Scott Hend, Alexander Bjork, Matthew Southgate
9.27pm*              Michael Campbell, Callum Shinkwin, Julien Guerrier
9.38pm*              Wade Ormsby, Masahiro Kawamura, Ashun Wu
10.11pm              Lucas Herbert, Robert Rock, Scott Jamieson
10.33pm*            Maverick Antcliff, Kalle Samooja, Kristoffer Broberg