Marcus Fraser used all of his experience to conquer extremely strong winds at 13th Beach Golf Club and put himself right in contention for a fourth European Tour title at the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open.
The 41-year-old's first victory came over 16 years ago and this week he is playing the 364th event of an illustrious European Tour career.
While still very much an active player, Fraser has cut back on his international commitments to spend more time with family in his native Australia, and he was one of a string of home favourites in the upper echelons of the leaderboard in Victoria.
A third round 69 put him three shots behind leader Min Woo Lee heading into the final day and Fraser revealed the conditions were some of the toughest he had played in.
"My old man plays off about 14, he's a good golfer, but I think he would have struggled to beat 110 out there today," he said. "I think that's probably as strong a wind as I think I've played in anywhere.
"I think you just remind yourself you've been playing golf for a long time and you know what to do.
"It's one of the first lessons I ever got taught: the wind is your friend, don't try to fight it. A lot of times you're trying to turn it back into the breeze and, when it's strong, you double cross it or you get it going so far on the breeze. Just use the wind and just let it be your friend.
"I think you always think about winning, it's always in the back of your head because that's why we enter a golf tournament.
"I feel like I've been so far off playing well. I've got some other things I'm working on, concentrating on doing that and forget about what the outcome is, whether it's good or bad.
"I feel like I'm trying to put something in place to get me back playing, not only the way I want to play, but the way I know I can play.
"I played at a very high level for a long time, I've been fortunate to do that and I think I'm putting things back in place to get back to feeling comfortable on the golf course."
