Cameron John came close to quitting golf during Covid, but his decision to return to the sport after a brief dalliance with carpentry continues to pay dividends for the Victorian.
John, 27, has qualified for July’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale following his second-place finish at last week’s Singapore Open.
It was a continuation of John’s impressive form after his wins in the Queensland PGA, Victorian Open and The National Tournament during the 2025-26 PGA Tour of Australasia season.
“You put a lot of effort into those bigger weeks when an Open spot is up for grabs,” world No.219 John said in reflecting on his effort to qualify for his first major.
“It’s always something you have in the back of your mind.”
However. golf was all but out of John’s mind when the Covid pandemic hit Australia in 2020.
“Going into Covid, we didn’t really know what was going to happen, but I had a plan when I was done playing some pro-ams in Canberra that I was just going to put the clubs away and maybe never touch them again,” he said.
“It never really occurred to me that we’d be forced into a break. At that point, it kind of worked out because there was such an extended period of time where no one could really do anything, so I was going to try to do something else.”
And that was a carpentry apprenticeship.
“To be fair, I actually really enjoyed it,” John said.
“It was something I didn’t have to go home from and use a massive amount of brain power (to) switch off from.”
However, the lack of “respect” given to a first-year apprentice soon made John realise that being a tradesman wasn’t going to satisfy him.
“We were getting to the end of Covid, and I was practising (golf) a little bit more, and I was feeling it.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind and I didn’t know what I was up to for a while, but I was glad I made that decision to come back (to golf).”
John is hoping to continue his good form at next week’s Asian Tour event, the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open.
He also hopes to gain entry into the Korea Open two weeks later as well as the International Series Morocco event, which starts on June 11.
