The top 70 players in the Race to Dubai rankings after the Genesis Championship in Korea (October 24-27) qualify for the first leg of the DP World Tour Playoffs, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The top 50 after that event advance to the DP World Tour Championship, a spot well within Micheluzzi’s reach given his recent run of form.

Sitting outside the top 115 cut-off to keep his card for much of the season, Micheluzzi vaulted from 120th to 57th with a runner-up finish at the BMW International Open in Germany.

On the back of that result he also climbed to a career high of 204th in the Official World Golf Ranking, taking a page from the Verstappen performance book as a way of pushing even further.

“I don’t know if this is why I started to play a lot better but in recent times idolising Max Verstappen,” said Micheluzzi, a self-confessed rev-head, on the Tee It Up podcast.

“A lot of people don’t like him but if you look at him and see what he actually does, he races non-stop. Not many people know that he does sim racing – he does everything in racing – and he’s just hardcore.

“He won’t sugar-coat anything and that’s what I like about it. ‘I want to step on your throat.’ I’ve adopted that kind of mentality. What is that mentality? Just doing your job and being better at it.”

Seventeen years since Brett Rumford was victorious at the stunning Crans-sur-Sierre layout, Micheluzzi is joined in the field by fellow Aussies Jason Scrivener, Haydn Barron and Andrew Martin.