It would be an exaggeration to claim an air of contentment was emanating from Marcus Fraser. But there was definitely a whiff of encouragement in the air.
Sitting on the clubhouse verandah at the Fairmont course just south of the Home of Golf, Fraser had just signed for a 71, one-under-par, in the opening round of the Asian Tour’s St. Andrews Bay Championship. That score – “a solid effort” – doubled as a step in the right direction. To that point, 2023 had been a year of almost unremitting on-course struggles for the 45-year-old Melburnian.
Still, that he should have endured eight missed cuts in his previous nine starts (and would fail to make the weekend in Scotland after a second 71 proved to be one-shot too many) wasn’t surprising Fraser. A realistic soul, he knew only too well how immediately difficult the top-level professional game would likely be upon his return from a self-induced three-year long absence. Resurrecting the kind of form that saw him win eight times on five separate tours – most recently at the 2016 Asian Tour/DP World Tour co-sanctioned Maybank Championship in Malaysia – would surely take
