If there was a reason the PGA of Australia has resisted any urge to align with LIV Golf, then one of them might be a Paul Walker-admiring, car-loving Victorian who is dreaming about buying a Ferrari by the end of the month.
David Micheluzzi will make his PGA Tour debut this week at the $14 million AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas. Next week, he will play his first major, the PGA Championship, at Oak Hill in New York.
At 26, he’s just won the Australasian order of merit, and for the past year local officials have fought and scrapped to protect the pathways for Australia’s young golfers to the world’s big tours, instead of lining up at Greg Norman’s LIV door.
Micheluzzi is part of the reason they’ve hitched their wagon to the sport’s traditional powers.
“I think it’s really cool to see what the PGA of Australia has done with the pathways now,” Micheluzzi said. “All credit to the guys and PGA of Australia and DP and PGA Tour for being able to give the PGA of Australia these pathways.”
Securing a spot in the Byron Nelson was also been helped by Micheluzzi’s management firm, which also looks after Masters winner Jon Rahm and two-time PGA Tour winner Tom Kim.
David Micheluzzi during last year’s Australian Open.Credit: AP
It has parlayed into a first major appearance next week, which will also be followed by the British Open in July before he takes up membership on the DP World Tour.
Having dodged qualifying schools to concentrate on his ambitions at home, Micheluzzi won the WA PGA Championship, TPS Sydney and NSW Open in a breakout season.
“Winning the order of merit, that was always on my mind, but it was more the top three I was worried about,” he said. “But I got off to such a good start and kind of treaded water for a little bit in the middle [of the season], but once I had that second win, it was just guns blazing. I was off.”
Last year, Micheluzzi briefly led the Australian Open on the weekend before finishing tied-10th.
His tournament week didn’t exactly start the right way when the exhaust pipe on his 2005 VZ SS Commodore broke off near a speed bump in the driveway of the Victoria Golf Club after he jammed some mates into the back of the car. It sat there, metres from the famous Peter Thomson statue, until he went back to retrieve it.
The next fortnight presents a chance to bank enough money to not have to worry about fetching broken exhaust pipes near Australian golfing landmarks.
Asked about his current car selection, Micheluzzi said: “There are two currently in the garage. Mum says I need to buy a property first to then get more cars, so I don’t think there’s anything any time soon.
“But I’m not going to lie, I have been looking around. Maybe a potential R35 Skyline. I’m a pretty big Paul Walker fan, so I’d love to get one of those.
“Hopefully have a couple good weeks here and maybe the Ferrari may come. I’m not too sure.
“That’s the dream, but we’ll get to that in a bit.”
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