There’s still plenty of golf to be played, but Michael Sims’ quest to make it through to the third and final stage of PGA Tour Q School for the first time got off to a fantastic start yesterday after he carded a four-under 68 in Florida to finish tied for sixth.

The 27-year-old professional went into this crunch week carrying a significant amount of emotional and psychological baggage having failed on six previous occasions to make it past the all-or-nothing second phase.

But shaking off the anxiety that even a player with steeliest of nerves must feel in such a pressure-cooker environment, the Canadian Tour rookie registered a total of five birdies and one bogey on the 7,153-yard Lake Jovita Country Club in Dade City Florida — playing the par fives in a commanding three-under and using his renowned length off the tee to his considerable advantage.

This is not the first time, however that Sims’ second-stage campaign has begun encouragingly.

Last year, the 2005 Bermuda Open champion carded a similar score of four-under at the Hombre Golf Club in Panama City, Florida — only to blow his chances with a couple of sloppy, over-par rounds riddled with bogeys.

By his own admission, Sims has struggled so far this year with consistency and has rarely strung four good rounds together in any one tournament.

Recently though, both at the Bermuda Open where he finished second to multi-time winner Tim Conley, and at the first phase of Q-School where he finished eighth overall on six-under par, there have been signs that the Island’s top golfer has begun to deal with this frustrating shortcoming.

Like he did during the first phase last month, Sims has an old college golf-team buddy carrying his bag this week — a partnership he said previously works very well — while his golf-pro father Bruce and the rest of his family have remained in Bermuda following his progress on the internet.

As has been his custom in the past, Sims is speaking neither to the media nor his family throughout the week, meaning they must simply hold their breath and hope as they log on to check his results every afternoon.

Close to 600 players spread across six different courses will battle it out for the roughly 80, third-stage spots — with everybody who progresses guaranteed at least a conditional pass to play on the Nationwide Tour and the opportunity to fight for a place on the PGA Tour.

Either way, if Sims finally makes it, he will have the chance to compete regularly in major tournaments with far larger prize purses than he has become accustomed to — something that would justify all the hard toil, endless travelling and many disappointments which have characterised his fortunes as a professional so far.