Geoff Ogilvy hopes the time wasted waiting for Australian golf to resume has made the next wave of talent more resilient.
The Australian PGA Championship will return to the Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane on Thursday, more than two years after Adam Scott lifted the Joe Kirkwood Cup at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast.
The inaugural Australian WPGA Championship will run within the event, with men and women in mixed groups and a $180,000 winner's check for both events.
The last two men's and women's Australian Opens were both canceled due to COVID, while several other major events have been canceled and social golf banned in Ogilvy's native Victoria for a long time.
The US Open champion and three-time World Golf Championship winner enjoyed an illustrious career in the USA before returning home in 2019.
He will be joined by emerging Australian Min Woo Lee in the tournament's return this week, who sympathizes with his younger rivals.
"We had golf then we didn't have, was, didn't," he said.
“I feel so much for these 19, 20, 21 year olds who were about to get on an airplane and go to Q-school or join a tour.
"It's put on hold and it's a tough, really terrible time for this to happen but it will build resilience and the will becomes stronger."
He said Australian success overseas in both the men's and women's ranks - most recently with Cameron Smith's record-breaking US PGA Tour win in Hawaii earlier this week - had also helped.
"Australians have won 20 or more tournaments in the last two years, really incredible and they are all friends (with players in the Australian PGA Championship), so it's very inspiring," he said.
"People in Japan have spent two years in hotel rooms ... it's been tough, but it seems we're in really good shape now."
The rescheduling of the event in January has ruled out the presence of any US-based stars such as Scott and two-time winner Smith.
COVID-19 has also taken its toll, with LPGA drawcards Stephanie Kyriakou and Sarah Kemp both contracting the virus and being ruled out on Wednesday.
Male contenders Matt Gyatt and Zach Kelly also got bruises after testing positive on Wednesday.
But Ogilvy, who created his own four-day course at the Sandbelt Invitational last year, said the admissions list was irrelevant.
"In my opinion all professionals are great players and the focus should be on building great events," he said.
"We have it all or nothing, where unless there are top-10 players, it's not worth it.
"People want people to do what they can't and everyone here can do it and everyone here is influential.
"And you go in for the competition and it doesn't matter if it's 1000 versus 900 in the world."
World No. 49 and Scottish Open champion Lee will take on LPGA Tour star Su Oh and Victorian PGA Champion Blake Windrede at 6.45 a.m. AEST.