For so many other hopefuls at Qualifying School, collecting their ticket to "the show" was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

For Nitties, it was another step in the journey a moment but not the moment.

Nitties had fought just as hard as the others to get there through the state and national junior programs, the Australasian PGA circuit and secondary American tours and had even battled and beaten reactive arthritis in his back which forced him to take a year off.

But he never stopped believing in himself and that, if given the opportunity, he could compete with the best in the world, not just share the same fairways and locker rooms.

That he did, making the top 10 in his first two tournaments, reaching the top 25 seven times, making 15 cuts from 27 starts, and pocketing $US931,532 ($1 million) to finish 96th on the money list and 94th in the FedEx Cup rankings.

Q-School was still a fortnight away when he played the NSW Open at The Vintage last year.

Fast forward to yesterday and the 27-year-old with the rock star swagger sat alongside another couple of Newcastle boys made good tournament host Nathan Green and fellow Charlestown product and defending champion Aaron Townsend to launch this year's tournament at the same course, which starts today.

"It's something I noticed at Q-School, you notice with a lot of guys, where they think that if they just get on tour, they're set for the rest of their life," Nitties said.

"But that's only phase one of the steps that you need to take to be a successful golfer.

"A lot of guys at Q-School were crying and fair enough, it's an emotional time but if you feel like your life's set just by getting on tour, you've still got a long way to go.

"It wasn't really arrogant in that, 'Now I'm going to show everyone', it was more the fact that I still had a lot of work to do. There's so many guys that get through Q-School and then you never hear of them again on tour because they have a terrible year and they never get back there.