Seven Australasian representatives will be on hand for the PGA TOUR’s historic first visit to South Korea when the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges gets underway Thursday.

The US$9.25 million purse is the largest of any regular TOUR event this season and with no cut, a field of just 78 players and full FedEx Cup points on offer it is a big opportunity to get a jumpstart on the new season.

Australia’s three highest ranked players – Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Adam Scott – are joined in the field by last week’s standout performer Cameron Smith as well as veteran Rod Pampling and young gun Ryan Ruffels.

Ruffels has received a sponsor’s invitation to play the event, a potentially career changing opportunity if he can produce his best golf this week.

The 19-year-old is yet to secure playing status on the Web.com Tour and his form at several PGA TOUR tournaments when playing on invite has been less than his best.

However, as Cameron Smith showed when finishing fifth at the CIMB Classic three years ago to gain a start in the following week’s PGA TOUR event in the U.S., it takes only four good days of golf at the right time to launch a career.

Ruffels has been playing predominantly on the PGA Tour Latino America the past two seasons though his recent form, despite back to back runner-up finishes in June, has been lacklustre.

After a three month break the Tour returned in September and in three starts Ruffels has a missed cut, a disqualification and a T40 finish to his name.

None of that will be on his mind, however, as he will know full well that a high finish this week could hold the key to his entire 2018 season.

The stakes aren’t as high for the remaining Australians in the field though all would love nothing more than to capture the inaugural trophy in South Korea.

In his weekly Power Rankings column PGA TOUR writer Rob Bolton has picked three of the six Australians as players to watch this week citing Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith as potential contenders.

Day and Leishman make their first individual starts since the Presidents Cup in New York where Day, in particular, showed indifferent form.

After a winless year in the U.S. the former World Number 1 played remarkable golf towards the end of the season to qualify for the TOUR Championship and will be looking to rekindle that form to kick off the new season.

Leishman’s 2017 was the polar opposite of Day’s with two wins and a legitimate chance to win the FedEx Cup and after three weeks to recover from a hectic run to finish the season he could be dangerous this week.

Smith is the form player among the Australians as he comes off a final round 64 at TPC Kuala Lumpur last week, his T5 finish at the CIMB Classic impressive after pedestrian Friday and Saturday rounds.

For Adam Scott the week also marks his first appearance of the new season after skipping last week’s CIMB Classic, a tournament he has played well in each of the last two years.

The early arrival of son Byron in August saw Scott make an unexpected dash across the world to play the Dell Technologies Championship where his golf was, not surprisingly, less than stellar.

Scott was also out of sorts at the Presidents Cup but with three weeks to regroup, and the allure of a new season getting underway, expect the 37-year-old to give a good account of himself this week.

Danny Lee flies the New Zealand flag and comes in after a strong top-10 finish in last week’s CIMB Classic.