One of five sites to host stage one qualifying, Blue Canyon Country Club will see 13 Aussies and three Kiwis attempting to play their way into Final Stage to be played over five rounds from January 18 and secure status for the 2023 season.

Having made the decision to go pro prior to the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship, McKinney (pictured, centre) and Hopewell (pictured, right) now need somewhere to play.

Hopewell has status on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia via the Future Tour affiliation program and both he and McKinney advanced to Second Stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School last November.

Hopewell progressed to Final Stage in Spain but was unable to qualify for the final two rounds where DP World Tour cards were up for grabs.

It is expected that he will receive sponsor invites throughout the course of the season but in the formative stages of his career the most valuable commodity is competitive rounds under his belt.

Tied for 10th at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open, Hopewell backed that up by qualifying for the Round of 16 at the Gippsland Super 6 at Warragul Country Club and will begin his quest for an Asian Tour card from 11.30am Wednesday morning AEDT.

For others, Asian Tour Qualifying School represents either a way back or a way forward.

Deyen Lawson and Jake McLeod have both had status on the DP World Tour. Kade McBride had three top-six finishes on the China Tour in 2019 before COVID-19 halted his progress. Elvis Smylie and Jack Thompson (pictured, left) are seeking to establish their place on an international tour while players such as Jack Munro and Jordan Garner are looking to take a step up from the Australasian tour.

Asian Tour Qualifying School (Section C)
Round 1 tee times AEDT
11am    Shane Feldman (a), Minsu Seo, Yongxuan Yin
11.10am             Kevin Chun (NZ), Jaewoong Eom, Joshua Yap
11.10am*           Nabil Abdul, Ho Yu-cheng, Junhyeok Moon
11.20am*           Daniel Fox, Thomas McLendon, Yunseok Kang
11.30am*           Hayden Hopewell, Nicklaus Chiam, Daehyun Jun
11.40am             Jack Munro, Romain Wattel, David Drysdale
12.20pm*           Deyen Lawson, Linqiang Li, Jerry Song (NZ, a)
3.45pm Jake McLeod, Cory Oride, Seung Park
3.55pm Kade McBride, Genki Okada, Brett Munson
3.55pm*             Jack Thompson, Nattawat Suvajanakorn, Wang Yucong
4.15pm*             Jordan Garner, Thanarat Srisathaporn, Quan Xianyou (a)
4.25pm Elvis Smylie, Taeyoung Kim, Greg Gonzalez
4.35pm Mitchell Varley (a), Shubham Narain, Seungbo Jang
4.35pm*             Connor McKinney, Sungjin Yeo (NZ), Sarut Vongchaisit (a)

* Starting from 10th tee