Queensland’s Maverick Antcliff will be hoping to continue his outstanding recent play when the final event of the 2017 China Tour tees off this week.

Antcliff has posted back to back top five finishes in his last two events and in his rookie season in China is a creditable fifth on the Order of Merit.

He is one of four Australians to tee up this week in the Asian Golf Championship, the last of 15 events on the 2017 schedule.

Bryden Macpherson, Marcus Both and Kevin Yuan are also in the field, Both making his first start in China since the inaugural 2014 season.

Macpherson still has a mathematical chance to win the Order of Merit after a year-long battle with Korea’s Rak Hyun Cho though will need to win, and rely on a poor finish from Cho, to achieve it.

The China Golf Association run Tour will cease to exist in 2018 when the PGA TOUR returns to the region to relaunch the PGA TOUR China.

The PGA TOUR China acts as a feeder Tour for the secondary Web.com circuit with the top money winner receiving full exemption and the next four earning conditional status in the US.

Launched in 2014, sponsorship issues saw the PGA TOUR pull its support of the Tour in 2017 though with those problems now resolved the circuit will once again offer an opportunity for the region’s golfers to access a pathway to the world’s richest Tour.