Bendigo golfer Andrew Martin has returned to Australia after his whirl-wind first year on the Asian Tour.
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To retain his tour card, Martin needs to finish within the top 60 players within the Habitat for Humanity standings to secure a spot in the 2019 season.
“My goal is to finish within the top 60 players, I could possibly scrape through at around 63 in the rankings,” Martin said.
“However, I’d much prefer to be within the top 60 to be safe.”
Martin currently sits in 66th position, having played 13 events throughout the season and still has three more to play before the end of the year.
Martin’s best finish of the year so far was T5 (-11) at the Asia Pacific Classic held at St Andrews Golf Club in Henan, China.
Before returning to Australia he had just finished up T53 (+2) at the Panasonic Open India, held at Delhi Golf Club.
Martin was more than pleased with how he played in India, “on a course where it’s easy to rack up a big number”.
“I was able to keep the ball in play, that was one of my major strengths throughout the week,” he said.
Before commencing the tournament the players were alerted about the state of the club’s putting greens.
“A month ago the greens were completely dead, so they did a great job to get them into the condition they were in,” he said.
While back in Australia, Martin will be taking to the course at the NSW Open, to be held at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club, and the Australian Open at The Lakes Golf Club.
“I always enjoy coming back home to play golf,” Martin said.
“It’s nice to play events in Australia, they are always great tournaments and we have some of the best courses in the world.”
After finishing up the Australian events, he will head to either Mauritius or Thailand for his final tournament of the year.
“I’m looking forward to the last couple of months in the year, but busy times ahead.”
One of the highlights for Martin’s first year on the Asian Tour has been the social aspects of meeting new players from across the world.
“Now there’s lot of players that are American, French and English which all of the Australians hang out with, it’s like any other international tour,” Martin said.
Despite spending majority of the year catching flights between events across the Asian continent, Martin knows it’s all part of the life and journey of a professional golfer.
Martin has been based in Melbourne since 2003 and cherishes every chance to come back to Bendigo, something he wishes he was able to do more frequently.
“But if we’re not on the road, we’re not making money,” Martin laughed.
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