THE year is not yet half over, and young Australian Michael Sim already has his player’s card gift-wrapped for a return to the US
PGA Tour next year. But should he win just once more on the Nationwide Tour, he’ll be back with the elite even sooner. The 24-year-old won his second Nationwide event of the year, the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greensville, South Carolina, at the weekend, and one more victory will give him an instant battlefield promotion to the remainder of this year’s PGA Tour. It is the same route Newcastle’s Nick Flanagan took in 2007. Last year, Victorian Jarrod Lyle won two Nationwide titles before the end of June but failed to win a third time. His fourth place on last year’s money list secured his card to the main tour this year. Victory for West Australian Sim gave him a cheque for $US126,000 ($167,300) for a total of $US367,417, a massive $US211,136 ahead of second-placed American Garth Mulroy on the money list after just seven starts this year. A week earlier, Sim lost a play-off, having scored his first win of the year shortly before that. He’s also had a third placing and a tied fourth. “I had a great off-season [on the Australasian Tour], and I sat down with my coaches and set some goals for the year,” Sim said. “I hadn’t really been doing that lately. My biggest goal was to try to win three times. I also wanted to finish No.1 on the money list.”
The dominance of Sim over the wannabes and once-weres on the secondary tour is simple enough to explain. For the first time in his professional career, which began in late 2005, he is fully fit. The miracle is that he has even returned to peak fitness. In the summer of 2006-07, he lay on a couch for three months after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the spine.