It’s 12 months since he reeled everyone in on the final day at Moonah to secure the title, coming from seven shots behind.

It was not his first win – he had earlier secured the WA PGA, the NSW Open and the Webex event in Sydney in his groundbreaking 2022-23 season – but could not find a way to defend those titles because of his playing schedule.

This time he is back as the winner and on familiar ground, at courses (the Open and the Legends) that he has played dozens of times. Plus with the pro-am element to this week brought by the Victorian Amateur Challenge, it means that he will play in a team with two good friends.

At the end of a long and arduous year travelling around the world on the DP World Tour, it has a good vibe to it. “It’s just good seeing the boys again and it’s a more relaxed environment. Just go out, play some golf and enjoy the end of the year.”

Micheluzzi has taken good strides since he won here last year, playing 24 times on his first full-time crack at the DP World Tour, making €609,000 and pushing his world ranking to 228th. His passport is chock full and “almost done”, but he is not looking for an out; he is renowned as a grinder, happy to play five or six weeks in a row.

“It’s been good. I’m slowly coming to terms with it becoming normal. At the start, it was like ‘I don’t feel like I belong yet’, whereas after Munich (where he was runner-up in the BMW Open), that’s when it kicked in.”

That performance took him inside the top 70 on the tour, and ultimately he made it all the way to the Abu Dhabi tournament in November, which means that in 2025, he will be in all the bigger European events. This time last year, he was at home working with coach Marty Joyce on lowering his ball flight to fit the majority of the courses on the DP World Tour.

“I’ve gotten better,” he said. “The results maybe haven’t shown it. I haven’t won this year, but at the same time, I feel like the golf game has developed from playing all different countries. My ball flight’s better, everything’s better. Now it’s doing all the little things to try and win a tournament. That’s what I have to focus on.

“I needed to change some things with my game to suit where I’m playing. This week is how I like it, low-running shots, ‘linksy’. My ball flight’s got higher. I had to because everything’s softer over there. It may not be tailored for it this week, but I’m working on things for next year.”

Micheluzzi will have a break after this week, but not for long. He’s playing the Sandbelt Invitational before Christmas, he’s entering the New Zealand Open and The National tournament to end the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season in March.

At 28, it feels like 2025 could be a big year for him. “I’m just playing bigger events, that’s all. I feel like I’m the same person.

“I want to try and make Dubai (the DP World Tour championship, for the top 70 players). I want to be a little more consistent with everything. It was a good year, a good learning experience. I was very up and down but in the last eight weeks, I’ve been more consistent.”

Micheluzzi is one of the marquee players in the field this week alongside the likes of two-time winner Jack Buchanan, Jasper Stubbs who was tied-third at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open last week and Queenslander Anthony Quayle.

The final two rounds of the Victorian PGA Championship will be broadcast live on both Fox Sports and Kayo with coverage to run from 3pm-6pm Saturday and 1pm-6pm Sunday AEDT.