Ewan Porter hated golf so much he turned to alcohol.

Not in a John Daly way though; he set about becoming an expert on craft beers.

Porter visited 25 countries, 30 US states, wrote a book and even filmed a web series for a travel channel.

But after falling out of love with the game, he’s now back to give it another shot and will play at the NSW Open starting on Thursday.

“I just want to enjoy my golf like I did when I was a kid, and that’s my goal, because I literally did hate playing it from 2010 to mid-last year,” he admitted.

“A couple of years ago I awoke to the fact that I didn’t want to be 35 or 40 wondering what to do with my life if golf didn’t pan out.

“Waking up, the last thing I wanted to do was go play golf, and like any line of work, you need to get out of that job if that’s your mentality.”

Porter, who also wrote a book on the life of being tour player and from time to time earned the ire of those in charge of the game, will play the Stonecutters Ridge course on invitation but says he’s striking the ball nicely.

“I won a pro-am last week so obviously I know I can still play fairly well, but it’s a different story out here, it’s a really strong field. There is more pressure and more tension in these tournaments, a little more at stake for the players,” he said.