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Australian golf coach Stuart Deane still has the $US1 million novelty cheque he won from Donald Trump hanging on his wall at home in Texas.
Now Deane, ranked No.2057 in the world, hopes to cash another big cheque after qualifying to play in this week's US PGA Championship.
The 47-year-old Brisbane native was among 20 club pros to gain entry to the year's second major through the PGA Professionals Championship earlier this month.
US-based Deane famously collected $US1 million from Trump in a made-for-television event held on a Caribbean island a decade before the businessman was elected as US President.
In 2006, holding no status on the PGA Tour or its second tier, he progressed through 54 holes of qualifying to win a sudden-death, nine-hole shootout at the Trump Million Dollar Invitational.
Deane says the billionaire was "gracious" and became a friend after his million-dollar victory.
"I've said it all along; he was phenomenal to me," Deane told AAP at a wet Bethpage Black course in New York on Monday.
"He was very gracious; gave me all the time I needed. I used to be able to call him. The whole experience was very interesting.
"People laugh that I've still got a huge novelty cheque on the wall at home with the president's signature on it. It's a fun story."
Deane admits he has not spoken to Trump in more than nine years.
"No; I talked to him quite often for the first few years after I won up until 2010, but now it would be impossible to reach out," Deane said.
Deane will contest his third major, having played the PGA Championship in 2014 and 2017, but will have his work cut out to make the cut for the first time.
Bethpage Black is known as one of golf's toughest tests and with rain soaking the Long Island course it will play much longer than its 7400-yard measurement.
At the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, which has a similar length to Bethpage, Deane shot 84, 81 to miss the 36-hole cut by a significant amount.
"I learned you have to be ready to play in a major," Deane said.
"This weather is going to make preparation difficult, but the big thing is to come and enjoy the experience and play as best we can.
"We have to represent (the PGA professionals in the tournament) well."
Deane qualified for an exemption to last week's Byron Nelson event in Texas but missed the cut.
He has been listed by Australian bookmakers as a 2500-1 chance to win the PGA.
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