Sport
‘My game is probably in the best shape it has been’: Shepparton’s Kyle Michel is ready to scale the heights of pro golf
For Shepparton golf sensation Kyle Michel, this weekend’s TPS Murray River tournament at Cobram Barooga Golf Club will mean a bit more than the average professional tour event.
Players from across the world will descend on the picturesque border town for four days of enthralling golf action, while also honouring the memory of one of Shepparton’s most iconic sporting personalities in Jarrod Lyle.
For a man that grew up in and around the Shepparton Golf Club, Lyle was a role model for Michel as he developed his passion for golf.
Lyle was, and still is, a symbol of what Michel could achieve if he made a career out of the game.
Now a part of the Australian Tour (PGA of Australia), the 26-year-old will tee off in honour of his idol on Thursday morning, something he said would hopefully drive him to his first professional win.
“I am feeling pretty good about Cobram, I have played it many times in pennant competitions and other tournaments up there and the course is in ripping nick at the moment,” Michel said.
“The tournament is in honour of Jarrod Lyle, who was from the Shepparton Golf Club and was my role model growing up around here, so it means a great deal to play well this weekend and be up there on the leaderboard.
“My game is probably in the best shape it has been, so I can’t see why I can’t be up there competing at the business end on Sunday.”
Michel comes into this tournament in a rich vein of form.
After finishing second in the PGA of Australia Gippsland Super 6 tournament at Warragul in December, easily his best result in a professional competition, he won two Pro-ams at Gippsland-based courses Yarram and Maffra a fortnight ago.
Riding a wave of confidence, Michel said his game was in a wonderful place and he could not wait to get out there on Thursday.
“My game is probably in the best shape it has ever been and I am just putting that down to the fact I am just confident in what I am doing at the moment,” he said.
“Every golfer’s got parts in their game they want to improve and mine has always been my iron play and longer iron play, and recently I have put a lot of work into getting that part of my game up to where it needs to be and it’s shown in my performances.
“Playing in Gippsland I just felt everything was in great order and I don’t see why I can’t replicate that again.”
After the summer season finishes in Australia, Michel will be chasing the sunshine as he heads over to the United Kingdom to compete on the secondary tour in Europe.
He said the objective of his trip was to continue this hot form and keep climbing the ranks to reach the ultimate goal of being “a top-100 player in the world”.
“I’ve got a card on the secondary tour in Europe, I’m not sure how many starts I will get over there, so it is a bit of a play-it-by-ear when it comes to that,” he said.
“I’ll definitely head over to the UK in July and compete in the qualifying series for the US Open and just spend a bit of time over there travelling.
“Ultimately I want to get into the top 100 in the world, that was instilled in me when I attended the Victorian Institute of Sport as an elite amateur, so I am just striving to reach that level.
“If you are a top-100 player in the world you will be playing on the main tours, you are going to be playing majors, but I also just want to get as much out of my golf game as I possibly can.”
But while golf is set to take him to all corners of the globe, the luscious greens and undulating fairways of the Shepparton Golf Club (a course at which he holds the record) will always be home.
“This is my second home. I’ve been coming out here ever since I was one following my dad out here, all the members are so supportive of me,” he said.
“I had a period there where I had course records all around Shepparton but never the Shepparton one, so when that happened it was a feather in the cap.
“Walking around and playing the course here at Shepparton, it just feels like home.”