Jed Morgan will be among the favourites to snare a prized ticket to the British Open when he tees it up at the Vic Open.
It has been quite the whirlwind few weeks for rising Australian golf star Jed Morgan.
A runaway victory at the Australian PGA at Royal Queensland in January saw the 22-year's world ranking rocket from the 1300s to 210, earning him a last-minute call-up to the $US5 million ($A7 million) Saudi International.
Even though he missed the cut, it was a career-changing experience playing alongside many of world's best, including countrymen and idols Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman.
"It was a massive event and overwhelming at times but it was awesome and this event is awesome as well," he said.
"There were 30 of the top 50 players in the world there and I've never seen them in person, let alone played in a tournament against them.
"I've watched (Smith and Leishman) win on TV and all of a sudden I'm playing in a tournament with them.
"It was sick."
A rare upgrade to business class for the flight home from Saudi Arabia was another bonus ahead of the Vic Open, beginning on Thursday.
And if Morgan needed any further reminder of his newly elevated status in the sport, it came when his playing partners in the pro-am at 13th Beach included Lord Ian Botham and fellow English cricketing great John Emburey.
"It's cool to go back to a world where you can fly, in terms of leaving for a different country and not having to quarantine or worry about it too much," Morgan said.
"Obviously you still have to take a COVID test but then being able to come back to your own country and not sit in a hotel is pretty cool.
"It felt a bit weird and like a different world to what we have been dealing with for the last two years."
Morgan enters the $410,000 Vic Open as the nominal favourite in an event where the top three finishers will get guaranteed starts at the 150th edition of the British Open at St Andrews in July.
It's quite the carrot.
"Everyone has got an extra spring in their step because of that," he said.
"The cool opportunity is that there are three of them and no one in the field is automatically qualified, so everyone is playing for it.."
At 44 years of age, now heavily involved in course design and with 46 majors under his belt, including that celebrated victory at the 2006 US Open, Geoff Ogilvy is in a much different place in his career to most of the pros teeing it up at 13th Beach this week.
Even so, snaring one of those Open qualifying spots would be "pretty nice".
"The Old Course is close to my favourite place in golf," he said.
"Hopefully I can play decent and have a chance.
"Obviously it will be on a lot of guys' minds and what a bonus for all these kids.
"There are some really good players who have been grinding for a few weeks, played a few events in a row and it'd be a real boon for them to get a start there.
""And what a special place to play your first Open for most of them, on the Old Course and it being the 150th."
