Lukas Michel says he’s enjoying juggling golf course design consultation with being an elite international amateur as he settles into the Asia Pacific event in Japan.

The 30-year-old Victorian carded a solid, one-over par 71 in Thursday’s first round at the Taiheiyo Club near Gotemba. Michel had only walked off a 14-hour flight on Tuesday from New York having played several prestigious amateur events in the US. Among them was the US Mid Amateur Championship, an event for over-25s that he won in 2019, and The Farrell tournament at Stanwich GC in Connecticut.

His one-over round in rainy conditions at Taiheiyo was a respectable score for a golfer whose day job is to work on course design and renovation projects – often with Mike Clayton’s Clayton-Devries-Pont firm.

So, how does the work-hobby balance play out?

This week, Michel has been going back to his hotel room each day after practice and working on Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software to provide graphic updates to golf course clients. Last year, at the Sandbelt Invitational in Melbourne, Michel was in contention in one of the rounds and – because of a late tee time the following day – he drove several hours to a private golf course client in central Victoria to perform some work, then drove back to Melbourne and continued competing in the event.

It’s a lot work, but he loves the it.

“I do a bit of everything,” Michel told Australian Golf Digest at Taiheiyo Club. “I do shaping; jumping on the machines big or small, whether it’s a 20-ton excavator or a D-5 Bulldozer, or a little bunker rake bike. I’m a shaper, but I do a lot of design stuff as well.”

So, why keep playing elite amateur events? Predictably, it’s a lot of fun and Michel loves competing. His 2019 US Amateur victory secured an invitation to the 2020 Masters and US Opens held during the Covid-19 pandemic. Michel was good enough to turn pro, but he asked himself if he was good enough to make money – and they are two different things.

Michel points to a pivotal moment where he made his mind up to pursue course design.

“I stood on the 15th tee at New South Wales Golf Club during the 2023 Australian Amateur and I couldn’t bring myself to hit driver off the tee because I was in contention,” Michel said. “I was like, ‘Well, if you can’t do that in an Australian Amateur, you probably can’t do that in a PGA tournament or a major championship.’”

Surprisingly, playing elite amateur events and working as a course design consultant complement each other. He tees up regularly in the US Amateur, US Mid-Amateur and other elite events which are often played at some of the best courses in the US and globally. Domestically, Michel won the Portsea Open Amateur in 2023, as well as the Master of the Amateurs in 2019 among other triumphs.

“There’s a lot of travel for both, and if you’re used to it it certainly helps,” Michel says. “I’m away from my girlfriend in Melbourne more than I’d like and that can be tough. But playing a lot of great golf courses in these amateur events broadens your understanding of golf course design and the world’s great layouts. Some of [history’s] best architects weren’t accomplished golfers, but [for me] when you walk into a room and you’ve played the Masters, people listen to your opinion.”

Perhaps the most exciting work in the pipeline is Michel’s contribution to the 7 Mile Beach golf course, a passion project of former PGA Tour pro Mathew Goggin, which is set in the dramatic and beautiful sand dunes east of Hobart.

7 Mile Beach.

“The piece of land, there isn’t another piece of land like it,” Michel says. “It’s just spectacular. The dunes are huge and super dramatic.

“7 mile is growing grass now, and I’m looking forward to getting that opportunity to go and play it. I’ve actually never played a golf course I’ve worked on. I can’t wait.”