In a week where the attention of Australian golf is turned to The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney, two-time Australian Open champion Aaron Baddeley is playing the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia.

Because he has to.

Without a PGA Tour card for the 2018/2019 season, the uncertainty of Baddeley’s schedule has become apparent in the early weeks of the wraparound season in the US.

He was forced to Monday qualify simply to earn a place in the field for the season-opening Safeway Open where he went on to finish fourth. He had to wait three weeks before he could use that top-five finish to take a place in the field for the Sanderson Farms Championship where he missed the cut with rounds of 74-70.

Now, two weeks later and with many of the PGA Tour’s big names absent, Baddeley is exempt for the RSM Classic due to finishing 132nd in the FedEx Cup last season.

It’s another chance to add to the 104 FedEx Cup points he accrued at the Safeway Open and hopefully open doors to even more starts early in 2019.

The 37-year-old has played at Sea Island four times previously and missed the cut twice, his best finish a tie for 40th in 2013 when it was known as the McGladrey Classic.

The only other Australians in the field for the final PGA Tour event of 2018 are Matt Jones and Curtis Luck.

Jones was 71st at last week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic while Luck has missed three of four cuts in what has been a difficult start to his rookie year on the PGA Tour.