As Mathew Goggin walked up to the 18th green in Wednesday's pro-am, he could not help but feel a tinge of regret. A wonderful hole it might be, but it was the scene of Goggin's Australian Open horror story in 2008.
After taking his place in an unlikely play-off with South African Tim Clark in the last open at Royal Sydney, the Tasmanian missed a short par putt on the 18th, the first designated play-off hole, which handed his opponent the tournament.
''I'm still kind of annoyed about it,'' Goggin said on his first time back on the course. ''I looked at 18 and I thought, 'I don't remember that green being this small'. I definitely thought about it.''
He still remembers his play-off putt too. ''I pulled it a bit,'' he said. ''It was a right-centre putt, and I hit it just in the middle of the hole. It was in … in … in … then, just at the last minute, it caught the bottom edge.
''I was extremely pissed off. That's how I was feeling. I was just disappointed.''
Having said all that, Goggin took some positives out of the finish. He did not expect to feature in a play-off, with New Zealand's David Smail at one stage four shots in front of the pair. Clark finished his final round and had a pie and chips, while Goggin gave away his balls and gloves to fans and volunteers.
''It was a weird day … I finished and gave all my stuff away,'' Goggin said.
''I gave all my balls and my gloves away, and thought maybe I'd get a tie for second. As far as I was concerned, he [Smail] won the tournament.
''Then it was a mad scramble trying to find golf balls to try and play in the play-off. I had tees, that was it.
''I had a glove in my locker, a brand new one that I hadn't taken out to my bag. But everything was emptied out of my bag. I was done.''
Perhaps for that reason, he does not feel like he is owed anything. And on his return, he is confident of playing well this week. ''It was a nice week,'' Goggin said. ''It seems so long ago now. I'm not overly bitter about it or anything like that. It wasn't like some sort of turning point. It just seemed like a week I played well. Although it would have been nice to win.''
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