At the age of 28, Josh Geary is having to start his professional golf career from scratch.
Having lost his status in the United States after a poor season on the Web.com Tour last year, Geary missed out on qualifying for any of the Asian circuits this year and will have to look at lower-tier options or Monday qualifiers for his ticket back to the show.
It's hardly a glamorous approach for a player who turned professional in 2007, but Geary said it wasn't just a lack of form that caused his downward spiral last year.
"I've made some swing changes. I really looked at it, where it was at and where I needed to be and me and my coach both decided that we needed to change some things to make it more consistent and I did that last year," Geary said.
"Unfortunately for that it was almost a sacrifice year. I kind of just played terribly but I was just going through changes that I had to do and I had to bite the bullet. It sort of came right around the Aussie Open at the end of last year and I hit the ball really good.
"The last three months has been really, really good, so it was a good change. It's just unfortunate that I lost my status in the mean time. But it'll be a good change for the future."
Geary's Auckland-based coach James Kupa has helped devise a plan where Geary uses more of his body through his swing and it's a return to how he used to strike the ball in his earlier years.
The results have slowly begun to trickle in and Geary banked a much-needed $31,600 at the NZ PGA Championship at The Hills at the start of the month when he finished in a tie for third with fellow Kiwi Gareth Paddison at 15-under, four strokes back from eventual winner Michael Hendry.
Geary, who is based in Charleston, South Carolina, went back to the United States shortly after the NZ PGA, where he had a fundraiser to attend.
"I'm actually a bit strapped for cash. So I've been trying to raise some funds and find some sponsorship for this year coming up."
While it's easy to watch the high-flying PGA Tour professionals rake in their million-dollar pay cheques, the harsh reality is that many golfers aren't financially flush as their expenses are high and the cashflow can be infrequent.
"It's expensive for one," Geary said. "If you have a bad string of events it goes downhill pretty quickly. But it's good when it's good and it's not when it's not. Unfortunately most of the time it's not that good. So I've had a few highs and lows but you ride it out and you do what you can do."
The rebranded PGA Tour Canada looks like Geary's next stop and the eight-tournament circuit that gets underway in June could provide a lifeline to his career.
"I'll do some Monday qualifying for the Web.com Tour and probably go to Canada. They've got a Q school for their tour this year and the top-five on the order of merit get a spot on the Web.com Tour next year," Geary said.
"That's kind of what I've got do is get back on that third tier and build back up and the way I'm playing I'm pretty confident I can do it this year."
Geary made his way through the professional ranks via the Canadian tour and won the Saskatchewan Open in July, 2008.
Going back to his past stomping ground won't bring huge financial relief for Geary but he said his game had got to a new level in recent months.
"I'm ready to go out there and start winning and just make it a lot easier where as three or four years ago your game's still evolving in to what it is now. So with the sort of things I've been working on everything's just right there. So I feel like it's so close but it's so far because I haven't got anything good to play in. But at the same time I'm a lot more at ease knowing that your game's in really good shape, that if you qualify for an event you've got a chance to win it rather than just compete."
It sounds like Geary just needs his chance.
