Daniel Augustus believes 2015 will be his year as he targets a place on the Canadian Tour.

The 27-year-old Tucker’s Point golf professional now has the finances, maturity and yardage to swing for a career that “has always been my dream”.

Augustus will head to Florida in the new year for some Mini Tour events before teeing it up at the Canadian Tour Qualifying School in April.

“I love the game and I love being around it,” he said. “I think being a professional is a beautiful thing.

“I’m feeling very confident. I know I can make it — I don’t think anymore, I know I can do it.”

A failed attempt to make the playing professional ranks two years ago taught Augustus valuable lessons and fuelled his ambition further.

Now, with the impetus of renewed belief, and fresh help and encouragement, Augustus is ready to go again.

“My plans for 2015 are to do the Canadian Tour Q-School, but obviously leading up to it I need to play in some events to get match ready,” said Augustus, who finished tied in nineteenth in last week’s Gosling’s Invitational tournament at Belmont Hills.

“Hopefully, I can play some E-Golf Tour events down in Florida and some NGA/Hooters Tour events — also, if I do well in those I may not even have to go to Q-School depending on how I do. But I think Canadian Tour Q-School is a better option as far as getting to the web.com Tour and then to the PGA Tour.”

After his father died when Augustus was just three, a next-door neighbour took him to a course one weekend. He was hooked instantly and was soon cobbling together makeshift clubs out of his mom’s hair curlers and rolling up pieces of paper into balls.

Augustus admits that he now feels a mixture of excitement and trepidation as he prepares to embark on a potentially defining year.

“I’ve wanted to do this for the past few years but the push just came from Robert Holland [club operations director] here at Tucker’s Point and also Paul [Adams, PGA director of instruction], who were like, ‘Come on, guy, you’ve got the talent’. I know I’ve had it all this time but now it looks like I’m going to get some financial backing, which is always the key.

“I tried to do it on my own a couple of years ago — it didn’t go so well! Some people are going to help out this time.

“In all honesty, I’m a little nervous but again this has always been my dream to try to pursue this.

“This has always been something I wanted to do from a young age — I’ve never really strayed from it. I’ve always been a golfer.

“I don’t look like much of a golfer but it’s always been my dream. To be able to have a chance and live it out is just a great feeling.”

The memory of his late father also motivates him, although Augustus is well aware of the strange twist of fate that introduced him to the game.

“It would be nice to make him proud even though he is not here,” he said. “Definitely, that’s something that drives me. It’s amazing that him dying led to me loving the sport, so if he had been alive today would I be playing today? Probably not, but it does inspire.”

Augustus has been at Tucker’s Point since 2013 after turning professional at Port Royal. He also spent some time at Riddell’s Bay as an amateur. Before outlining his new-year plans to The Royal Gazette, he arrowed five drives more than 300 yards down the range. The PGA Tour average carry is 275.

Adams, believes his protégé has the tools to succeed. “I’ve been asked, ‘is Daniel going to make it?’ and you never know, but he’s got as good a chance as anyone I have seen. If it was a 100 metres [sprint], he’d be doing it in under ten seconds.”