Former professional golfer Mike Clayton has backed Canberra's Matt Millar to continue his run of form and qualify for the Japan Tour next year.
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Clayton said the Gold Creek member played a smart and consistent game which suited the narrow courses with high roughs in the land of the rising sun.
"I saw him play in the Masters in Melbourne last year and he's playing really well," Clayton said.
"He hasn't won that much but he seems like he's in the top 10 every time he plays, so he's really consistent.
"He's an old-fashioned type player because he doesn't hit the ball as far compared to the young guys but he's smart and he plays really steady golf."
After the Australian Open at Royal Sydney this month Millar will forgo the Australian PGA Championship in December to compete in the Japan Tour Qualifying School.
"Hopefully he makes it because the tour schools are not easy. You've got to grind it out and you can't afford to make too many mistakes because there's no next week," Clayton said.
Clayton will play a seven-hole exhibition match on Sunday at the opening of the redeveloped Royal Canberra Golf Club with US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy, which the two designed.
Clayton rejected the comparisons made between Royal Canberra and Augusta National, and tried to implement technical features to the course to help it play more accurately to the home of the US Masters.
"The only thing it had in common with it was that it was hilly and it had pine trees, but it was a good model for it being an inland parkland golf course," Clayton said.
"We tried to highlight that a little bit, gave it more short grass and cut a creek in front of a par five which is similar to the 13th hole at Augusta. We also made the fairways a little wider and cut the bunkers closer to the greens."
Royal Canberra hasn't hosted a national tournament since the Australian Women's Open in 2013 and it was hoped the refurbished courses could attract tournaments and players as it did in the glory days of the 1970s.
Particularly in 1970 when Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino played in the Dunlop International.
Ogilvy finished fourth in the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas on Monday morning, four shots behind fellow Australian Rod Pampling who ended a decade-long drought on the tour.
