After kicking off his first pro season on a foreign continent with six straight missed cuts, rookie Travis Smyth had reason to feel overwhelmed.
The 23-year-old won his Asian Tour card at last year’s Q School and has spent most of 2018 navigating unfamiliar countries and exotic golf courses on his own.
But three strong weeks in Asia and two more under-par rounds at the 2018 Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways have the 23-year-old New South Welshman feeling a whole lot more comfortable on the road.
“I put myself down a little bit through that patch where I missed a bunch of cuts in a row,” Smyth said on Friday evening.
“I never felt like I was playing too bad and I think that’s why I’m starting to play better now.
“So far, first year as a pro, it’s been ups and downs.
“I’m just going through what golf gives me.”
One thing golf has given Smyth is options.
His performance at Asian Tour Q School came after a six-shot win – as an amateur – at the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia’s NT PGA Championship.
With playing rights earned at home and across Asia, Smyth knows he’s got enough guaranteed starts to find his feet overseas and work his way into some form.
And after notching up three straight top 20s at the NSW Open, Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship last summer, there’s no doubt the former World Number 11 amateur has the game.
“I just really had to get back to thinking the way I was when I was in form,” said Smyth, “and believe that I do belong out here, because I’ve done it before.
“I’ve won as an amateur. Not many players have done that.”
Smyth’s wire-to-wire win in Darwin was the full stop on an impressive amateur career – but learning about what it takes to perform week-in, week-out on any professional circuit is often what derails most tour rookies.
“As an amateur I had a pretty sort of steady run ‑ I didn’t really play bad for a long period of time,” said Smyth.
“With most amateur golfers, you get host families and you get looked after 10 out of 10 everywhere you go basically.
“Now I’m booking flights and then getting to the hotel and then organising shuttle buses.
“I haven’t really experienced Asia too much and just staying in hotels by yourself and playing golf courses that are very different, that’s the hardest part. There’s a lot to think about.
“Once I get to the golf course now its just like, ’Finally, something that I know, something I’m used to’.”
After a bogey on Friday on the gettable 17th at Natadola Bay Championship Golf Course, Smyth responded with a bold up-and-down to save par on 18.
Rounds of 71 and 70 leave him in a share of 12th at the halfway stage of his first trip to Fiji and on the back of a top 20 last week in Thailand, Smyth is showing signs he’s worked his way through his first bad stretch of golf – a crucial checkpoint in the career of a young pro.
“It’s my first time out here in Fiji and I have a really good friend on the bag this week,” said Smyth.
“I’m staying in a house with one of my best mates I haven’t seen for a while, Harrison Endycott. He’s just made the cut as well, so it’s really looking like a good week.
“Happy days.”