A place where Australians have enjoyed success in recent years, Bay Hill Club and Lodge crowned Day (2016) and Marc Leishman (2017) as victors in successive years, Leishman owning the honour of being the last player to be presented the trophy by Arnold Palmer prior to The King’s passing.

No.1 in the world for a 51-week period that ended in mid-February 2017, Day is second only to Greg Norman as Australia’s most enduring rein as the world’s best, Scott holding the mantle for 11 weeks following his win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May 2014.

Scott rose to No.7 in the world on the back of his win at the Genesis Invitational three weeks ago and advanced one spot higher following the WGC-Mexico Championship, the 39-year-old’s highest ranking since October 2016.

While Scott is again well entrenched in the top 10, Day has a way to go to reach those lofty heights.

Buoyed by a top-five finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Day chose to skip the first WGC event of the year and last week’s Honda Classic but returns this week to a venue that has been kind to him in the past.

In addition to his win four years ago, Day made the cut in six straight visits to Bay Hill before having to withdraw from last year’s tournament with a back injury.

Elsewhere around the world this week, there are 13 Aussies playing the Asian Tour’s Bandar Malaysia Open including 21-year-old amateur Lawry Flynn.

The Queensland left-hander finished tied for third at the Tailor-made Building Services NT PGA Championship last year and received an invitation to play this week due to his win in the 2019 Malaysian Amateur, the biggest win of his amateur career.

The European Tour remains in the Middle East for the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters where Scott Hend leads a contingent of five Aussies while Rod Pampling and Stephen Leaney will be out to build on their strong starts on the Champions Tour at the Hoag Classic in California.

Round 1 tee times AEDT

Asian Tour
Bandar Malaysia Open
Kota Permai Golf and Country Club, Shah Alam, Malaysia

11am     Adam Blyth, Kyungnam Kang, Sazanur Iman Salenin (a)
11.10am*            Scott Strange, Kazuki Higa, Rory Hie
11.40am              Terry Pilkadaris, Paul Peterson, Dongmin Kim
11.50am*            Travis Smyth, Naoki Sekito, Ajeetesh Sandhu
12pm*   Daniel Fox, Dongkyu Jang, Juvic Pagunsan
12.30pm              Lawry Flynn (a), Mohd Iylia Jamil, Fakhrul Akmal
12.40pm              Will Heffernan, Jimmy Chia (a), Fadzlan Faruk
12.40pm*            Ben Eccles, Mikiya Akutsu, Rashid Ismail
3.40pm Wade Ormsby, Amir Nazrin, Miguel Tabuena
3.50pm*              Jake Higginbottom, M. Sasidaran, Hein Sithu
4pm       Andrew Dodt, Leunkwang Kim, Suradit Yongcharoenchai
4pm*     Marcus Fraser, Viraj Madappa, Dodge Kemmer
4.50pm*              Josh Younger, Yeh Wei-tze, Kemarol Baharin

Defending champion: Anirban Lahiri (2015)
Top Aussie prediction: Wade Ormsby
Past Australian winners: Frank Phillips (1962), Bill Dunk (1963), Graham Marsh (1974, 1975), Stewart Ginn (1977, 1986), Brian Jones (1978), Terry Gale (1983, 1985, 1987).
Round 1 TV schedule: Live from 5pm Thursday on Fox Sports 503

European Tour
Commercial Bank Qatar Masters
Education City GC, Doha, Qatar

2.25pm Scott Hend, Thomas Detry, Laurie Canter
2.55pm*              Jason Scrivener, Joost Luiten, Joakim Lagergren
3.55pm*              Jake McLeod, Kyongjun Moon, Sebastian Heisele
4.15pm*              Maverick Antcliff, SSP Chawrasia, Saleh Al Kaabi
7.40pm Min Woo Lee, Martin Kaymer, Guido Migliozzi

Defending champion: Justin Harding
Past Australian winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Scott Hend
Round 1 TV schedule: Live from 6.30pm Thursday on Fox Sports 506

PGA TOUR
Arnold Palmer Invitational
Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando, Florida
10.45pm*            Danny Lee, Emiliano Grillo, Talor Gooch
10.57pm              Matt Jones, Sam Burns, Scott Harrington
12.06am              Adam Scott, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka
4.44am Marc Leishman, Sungjae Im, Rickie Fowler

Defending champion: Francesco Molinari
Past Australian winners: Rod Pampling (2006), Jason Day (2016), Marc Leishman (2017)
Top Aussie prediction: Adam Scott
Round 1 TV schedule: 6am Friday on Fox Sports 503

PGA TOUR-Latinoamerica
Estrella del Mar Open
Estrella del Mar Golf and Beach, Mazatlan, Mexico

1.10am James Anstiss, Joshua Lee, Patrick Flavin
4.50am Danny List, Joshua Seiple, Alex Weiss

Defending champion: Martin Trainer (2016)
Past Australian winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Danny List

Champions Tour
Hoag Classic
Newport Beach Country Club, Newport Beach, California

Aussies in the field: Stephen Leaney, David McKenzie, Rod Pampling

Defending champion: Kirk Triplett
Past Australian winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Rod Pampling
Round 1 TV schedule: Live from 10am Saturday on Fox Sports 503

* Starting from 10th tee