Matt Jones knows it will take something extraordinary but the New South Welshman hasn’t given up hope of playing his way into Ernie Els’ International team for the Presidents Cup matches in Melbourne in December.

Five years since his sole PGA TOUR win at the Houston Open, Jones returns to the Golf Club of Houston this week buoyed by some strong recent results that he credits to a more conservative approach with his iron shots.

Ranked 36th in the early stages of the FedEx Cup and 19th in Scoring Average, Jones has recorded two top-10s and two further top-30 finishes in his past six starts and knows it will take at least one tournament win to join the International team at Royal Melbourne Golf Club from December 9.

Trailing by six shots at the start of the final round, the 2015 Australian Open champion chipped in to defeat Matt Kuchar in a playoff to claim the 2014 Houston Open and knows a repeat effort his week will go some way to convincing Els he is worthy of consideration.

“Of course, I would give anything I could to play a Presidents Cup in Australia on those type of golf courses where they would suit an Australian golfer,” Jones said.

“For me to do that I would have to win a golf tournament and do something special in another tournament, too.

“Ernie has a lot of tough decisions to make, but whoever he picks is going to be as good as they can be.”

On the back of a good putting week at last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas where he hit close to 80 per cent of greens, Jones opened up about the focus he has adopted heading towards the backend of 2019.

The 39-year-old hit less than 67 per cent of greens in regulation last season and has tempered his aggressive nature in order to give himself birdie putts on a more regular basis.

“I probably have gone a little more conservative than I used to have been,” Jones admitted.

“I am probably going to hit more greens, even if it’s a few feet further away.

“I’m naturally a very aggressive player. Most golfers out here think they can get to any pin.

“Sometimes it’s better to hit it to 30 feet than try and get it to 10 feet.

“The more greens I hit, with the way I’m putting, the better chance I’ll have of having good weeks.”

The other Australians joining Jones in the Houston Open field this week are Aaron Baddeley, Cameron Davis, Rhein Gibson and John Senden who is again using an exemption for making 300 career cuts to take his place.