Victoria’s Matt griffin returns to the site of his career best Japan Tour finish this week when The Crowns tournament is played at the Nagoya Golf Club in the Aichi prefecture.

After finishing T5 last year in his first appearance at the event Griffin will be keen to rekindle his relationship with the course after a promising start to his season.

Griffin has made the cut in two of the three events he has played in 2017 and after some decent golf two weeks ago in his last outing at the Token Homemate Cup will be one to watch.

Also in a comfort zone will be 2011 champion Brendan Jones who was T10 here last year in an event where he has had several high finishes.

Jones has played only twice in 2017 but with a record that includes missing the cut just once in 14 appearances he seems likely to improve on last week’s T4 at the Panasonic Open.

Griffin and Jones are joined in this week’s field by last week’s top finisher, Won Joon Lee, as well as fellow regulars Adam Bland, Brad Kennedy and Kurt Barnes.

Lee will be hoping to continue his good play from last week where he posted his first top 10 in more than a year while Bland will also be hoping to continue a build in form.

With three cuts made from four starts for the year and a top 10 two weeks ago in the Token Homemate Cup the South Australian’s game is in good shape and a high finish this week would be no surprise.

One player who will be hoping for improved play is Brad Kennedy who has go off to an uncharacteristically slow start to the season in Japan.

After a close call at the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open early in the year Kennedy’s play has not been up to its usual high standard and he has missed his first two cuts of season 2017.