Pro Qualifies For PGA Of Australasia Event Thanks To Indoor Simulator Win

There's lots of talk in golf about qualifying for tournaments, via sponsors invites and the like, but how about making your way into a pro event via a simulator?

Well, that's exactly the route taken by Gavin Macpherson - a Scotsman now living in Australia - to play his way into the New South Wales Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

The 35-year-old won the first ever NSW Virtual Open in October - an event that took place on a network of indoor golf simulators - to claim a spot in the New South Wales Open field.

And so, the former semi-professional footballer in Scotland scooped a first prize of $6,500 and a place in the field for the NSW Open, with a prize fund of $800,000.

"I play a fair bit of indoor golf," Macpherson told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I'm a bit of a gear head, so I like to look at all numbers and data and stuff like that.

"Then I saw Golf NSW had come up with this pathway, and so I entered the qualifying and got into the final, and then it all paid off, thankfully."

Glasgow-born Macpherson moved to Australia a decade ago and turned professional after getting a job at Royal Sydney Golf Club.

Now he's playing alongside the likes of defending champion Lucas Herbert in the New South Wales Open - all thanks to simulator golf.

It's not quite the TGL, but another sign of the diversifying of the game, with Golf NSW using the absility to link up virtual golfers from across Australia to find a qualifier instead of the more costly and time consuming traditional qualifying events.

We'll wait to see if other tours start to use technology or simulators as a means of offering ways into events.