Maverick aiming to emulate Day’s rise to top
BEAUDESERT boy Maverick Antcliff has an ambition to follow the same pathway taken by a famous professional golfer from the same town in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
The name of Jason Day, currently No.12 on world rankings, comes swiftly to mind when you mention Beaudesert and golf because that is where the former global No.1 was born and where he first swung a golf club at the age of three.
And, like Day, Antcliff went through the golf program at Hills International at Jimboomba.
Understandably, Antcliff would like to take similar footsteps as Day, whose big victory came in the 2015 US PGA Championship.
“That’s the dream,” 24year-old Antcliff said as he prepared for a 2018 campaign full of hope after a high finish at the PGA Tour of Australasia qualifying school.
The Q school was held at Moonah Links in Victoria and Antcliff finished a creditable seventh on five-under par 283, nine shots behind winner Aaron Townsend.
Antcliff closed the tournament with a five-under 67 and jumped 10 places in the field.
The finish secured a category 16 Tour exemption, which means he can get into all the second-tier events on the PGA Tour calendar next year but will have to do pre-qualifying for the bigger tier-one events.
“I have the Asian school coming up next month in Thailand and I’m preparing for that,” he said.
Antcliff made it to that tour’s final qualifying stage via a fifth placing on the 2017 China Tour order of merit.