Heading into his third season as a professional, Ryan Ruffels has never been clearer about the road ahead.
The eventual destination is still the promised land of the US PGA Tour.
But the route map this year runs through some exotic locations in Latin America along with a few other stop-offs, including the Vic Open at Thirteenth Beach this week, where he will play as a pro for the first time on home soil.
Ruffels was flagged as Australia's best prospect since major winner Jason Day when he gave up his amateur status in 2016 aged just 17.
That reputation and a glittering amateur CV earned Ruffels a total of 15 sponsors' invites to US Tour events from 2016 onwards - which turned out to be a mixed blessing.
A best finish of T20 and seven missed cuts were below expectations, and also not enough to get him onto the secondary Web.com tour.
Fluent in both English and Spanish, the US-born Ruffels chose to play last year on the third-tier Latinoamerica Tour - where the top five finishers on the money list earn full Web.com Tour status.
The problem was that he spent so much time flying to and from the US in 2017 he was unable to finish any higher than 15th overall.
"I got caught in the middle of trying to play a full season down there but also getting caught up with invites on the main tour," Ruffels told AAP.
"This year I'm really going to put my focus on Latin America because had I played a full season down there in 2017 I would most probably have found myself on the Web.com Tour this year.
"That's a bit disappointing, but it is what it is and it's also a learning curve."
The way Ruffels sees it, even if he has yet to match the huge outside expectations in his first couple of years in pro ranks, the lessons learnt mean he is still well ahead of contemporaries who chose to retain their amateur status for longer.
He has excellent memories of the tough 36-hole Thirteenth Beach layout, having tied for third at the 2015 Vic Open as a 16-year-old.
"When the wind get up it will be a good test for me, seeing how fast I can adapt," he said.
"But it's a course where I've done well in the past and my game is in really good shape."
Defending Vic champ Dimi Papadatos, 2015 winner Richard Green, 2014 title-holder Matthew Griffin, fellow Australians Brad Kennedy, Matthew Millar and Nick Cullen and Kiwi Michael Hendry are among other players expected to figure prominently.
The tournament is again being run concurrently with the women's Vic Open.
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