Jeffrey Guan says it was a “great feeling” to play again professionally after losing sight in his left eye during a tournament last year.
The Australian, 21, was struck by a golf ball last September while playing in Sydney only one week after making his US PGA Tour debut.
The incident left him blind in one eye but he vowed to return to the game and spent months building to his comeback.
Guan, who is a two-time Australian junior amateur champion, returned on Thursday by firing a first-round 74 at the NT PGA Championship in Palmerston.
“Teeing off the first was genuinely a great feeling,” said Guan.
“I wasn’t nervous at all from what I predicted the past couple of days but there was a lot of mistakes out there and heaps of room for improvement.”
Guan had surgery in New South Wales after being struck by the ball and spent two weeks in intensive care after being transferred to Sydney for a second operation.
There he was told by doctors he was unlikely to regain vision in his left eye.
Speaking before the tournament in Palmerston, Guan said he had to adjust to playing the game with limited vision, adding he didn’t know what to expect and was experiencing “a mix of emotions”.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this year but then I’ve been practising and I felt really good over the ball and I was like, ‘Why not give it a shot?’,” he said.
“There were so many times in the hospital where I just thought, ‘Is this going to be over’?
“I couldn’t even eat. I couldn’t really do anything. I wasn’t allowed to walk because I had to keep my eye stable. So yeah, those thoughts were definitely running through my head for three, four months.”
Guan added he was taking his comeback one step at a time.
“I’m coming here with really no expectations. I just want to have fun and sort of just play to see where I’m at,” he said.
