Michael Hendry's win on the Japan Tour gives him belief he can get his golf game back to levels before his Leukaemia diagnosis and, possibly, even higher.
It's not his first win since Michael Hendry was diagnosed with Leukaemia, but it's the biggest and one that gives him belief.
"I actually think there's a bit coming," he told 1 News this afternoon. "I think I can be a better play than I was before I got sick, so yesterday was a really good step in the right direction."
Hendry's victory in the For The Players By The Players stableford tournament in Gunma, for which he won $106,828, comes almost a year to the day since his cancer diagnosis.
"I set myself a goal that if I was going to come back and play golf I was going to compete and not just turn up and I've worked really hard and hard work pays off.
"I felt like potentially I could get back to where I wanted to get to and in the winner's circle at this level, but to happen within a year, I never thought it would come this quickly."
Hendry wanted to give special thanks to head of the Lymphoma Service at Auckland Hospital Dr Leanne Berkahn and the rest of the team in Ward 11, who he says have given him not only a second chance of playing golf, but a second chance at life.
He still has to have treatment - through medication and "really unpleasant" bone marrow biopsies every three months. He's confident everything's tracking well.
"You never say never with these sorts of things - they have a nasty habit of coming back," he said. "But at the moment everything's going well. It's a factor of my life but I try and make it as little a factor as possible."
Remarkably, though, considering all the struggles he's faced in the last 12 months, he can still find the positives out of it.
"In some ways it was a blessing, it's changed my perspective on life and towards golf as well and I think maybe that's really helped with my approach to the way I play the game. Maybe golf was too important prior to getting sick and now I've struck a healthy balance."
Hendry's started working with Kiwi pro and now coach Luke Toomey. He believes the combination has been hugely beneficial.
And the win will also give him some certainty around where and how often he can play.
"Now I'm in the winners' category I can pick and choose the events I want to play, whereas coming out of the medical exemption I was on, my schedule was dictated to me a little bit.
"Now I'll be able to strike the great balance I was looking for between playing golf and spending more time with my family, which was something that I wanted to really focus on after what happened last year."
And one of those events is glistening just ever-so-slightly in the distance - a medical exemption to play in the Open Championship.
Hendry had to give up his spot at last year's tournament while he underwent chemotherapy. But the Royal and Ancient Golf Club has deferred his entry to this year at Royal Troon.
"It's obviously very exciting and the great thing about this trip is I have a lot of friends and family coming with me. Just being able to get back there considering what happened last year is a win in itself.
"I would love to have a good week, but results are one of those things in this game that it's so hard to predict. But you can be sure I will try my hardest and I will enjoy every bit of it and hopefully that's a bit of a recipe for success during the week."
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