Border golfer Zach Murray turns professional in time for Australian Open

While the decision wasn’t surprising, it’s still an enormous step in the 21-year-old’s career.

Murray leaves the amateur ranks with a world rating of 19 and two in Australia, behind great mate David Micheluzzi, who Murray beat to claim his first win in a professional tournament in last month’s WA Open. 

“With that win in WA, I get into all the major events on the Australian Tour until the end of 2019,” he said.

“I’ve always said I wanted to turn professional when I thought I was playing my best golf and if I’m not playing my best golf, then I’m playing very, very close to it.

“I started to feel a lot more comfortable about playing in professional events and feel like I can compete with the big players and the win solidifies it.”

After his win, Murray followed that with a blistering start at the Queensland Open, firing six-under par on the opening day before falling away in the final round to finish tied for 20^th.

The emotion of the fortnight took its toll with Murray electing to miss the weekend’s NSW Open.

He played a stableford competition at Wodonga on Saturday and landed his second hole-in-one – the first was at Melbourne’s Kingswood Golf Club last year – on the 16^th.

“It was 152m, a little bit into the wind off the left, I hit a nice eight-iron and it landed about two feet past the hole and spun back in,” he said.

To highlight the level Murray is now playing, he picked up just three stableford points.

Murray, who finished his amateur career with a handicap of plus five, will tackle his fifth Australian Open, at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney, starting Thursday.