Aberdeen-born Michael Sim aims to get


back to top flight




By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Aberdeen-born former US PGA Tour player Michael Sim has played his way into the field for this week’s Rust Oleum Championship on the American Web.com Tour with a 5-under-par 67 at the Monday qualifier. 
The tournament is being staged at  the quaintly named Ivanhoe Club, Ivanhoe in the state of Illinois.

Sim, a four-time winner on the secondary circuit, is looking to play his way back to the top of the game after a lengthy run of injuries derailed one of the most promising careers of the last decade.
Sim, pictured, who emigrated with his parents from Westhill in the Aberdeen western suburbs to Australia when he was about eight years old and became the world No 1 amateur before he turned professional, earned a ‘Battlefield Promotion’ to the US PGA Tour in 2009 after winning three times in a single season on the Web.com Tour.
But he never got the opportunity to take full advantage as a series of injuries curtailed his ability to play.
Sim’s Monday performance this week sees him tee up on the Web.com Tour for the first time since 2014 and swells the Australian contingent to seven for the week.
Also playing in Illinois are Steve Allan, Mark Hensby, Rhein Gibson, Jamie Arnold, Robert Allenby and Peter Lonard. Of those only Lonard, Allan and Gibson have played the event previously with Gibson’s T50 in 2015 the best result among the three.
However, with the season almost at its halfway mark there is a sense of urgency among the Australians with none currently close to the top-25 on the money list who will earn US PGA Tour cards for 2018.