Canberra golfer Matt Millar has traded sushi for the glitter strip in a bid to end his year on the best note by turning Japanese disappointment into Australian PGA Championship success on Thursday.
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Millar will tee off in the opening round at Royal Pines just two weeks after a back injury crushed his hopes of playing a Japan Tour qualifying event.
The 40-year-old Gold Creek professional should be starting a six-round Japanese mission in chilly conditions near Nagoya in a bid to secure a Japan Tour card.
But after playing through pain at the Australian Open, scans confirmed a facet-joint problem in his back and he was ruled out of international travel.
The silver lining is that Millar gets to play in the PGA Championship, albeit after only a handful of practice shots, as he attempts to better his sixth-place finish last year.
Millar was given a cortisone injection to dull the pain for the tournament before taking a six-week break.
"I have really only chipped and putted in the lead-up to the PGA, keeping it light to just take it easy and see how it responds," Millar said.
"Hopefully the injection shuts [the back injury] up a bit. The true test will come when you start playing on Thursday and see how it handles it.
"You try to let go of [what could have been in Japan]. I would have loved to have been up there and it would have been a great chance.
"But I know I wouldn't have got through it, I just wouldn't have been able to play [in six rounds]. So one door closes, another one opens."
Millar had been hoping to play well in Japan to fill up his 2017 schedule on the lucrative tour in Asia.
That quest was cruelly ended by the back problem, but winning the PGA Championship would open some doors in Europe and Asia, as well as boosting his Order of Merit ranking.
The winner will be granted a European Tour card given the event is co-sanctioned by the Australasian and European Tours.
"I haven't set any goals or anything like that for the PGA," Millar said.
"Of course you want to win the tournament and play well. But from my perspective at the moment, as long as I can go out and play four rounds decently, that would be the key for me.
"If the back holds together ... I'm hitting them quite decently, the course is playing all right and the conditions aren't bad for me.
"If I can get through physically, I think I'm a good chance to perform well. Let's hope things happen for a reason."
Millar will play with Scotland's Duncan Stewart and Daris van Driel of the Netherlands in the opening round.
