There’s more than money at stake for the six Australians teeing up in this week’s opposite field Puerto Rico Open on the PGA TOUR.

While the golf world will be consumed with happenings at the WGC Dell Matchplay in Texas, a full field of the TOUR’s lesser lights will be looking to make the most of their chance at the Coco Beach club in Central America.

Among those with plenty to play for is Matt Jones, the former Houston Open champion having lost full status at the end of last year and only eligible to play a limited number of tournaments.

Jones is teeing up for just the third time in 2017 and while his results at both the Waste Management Phoenix Open (T36) and Pebble Beach Pro-am (T23) were decent, he’ll need to do more if he is to regain his status for the 2018 season.

While lack of tournament play makes it difficult to find form Jones will begin the week with some confidence having played well at this venue previously.

In 2012 he led for the opening two rounds when the course was still known as Trump International though faltered on the weekend to eventually finish T5.

Jones has played the event four times and missed the cut just once so has a level of comfort with the course.

Joining the former Australian Open champion in this week’s field are Stuart Appleby, Steven Bowditch, Camron Percy, John Senden and Brett Drewitt.

Appleby, Senden and Drewitt make their first appearances at the tournament with both struggling for from in 2017.

The veteran Senden has been out of sorts in 2017 with just one cut made in seven starts and statistics suggest it is all areas of his game that need attention.

Generally regarded as one of the best ball strikers on the Tour week in and week out, that hasn’t been the case this year ranking 99^th in driving accuracy and 105th in greens in regulation.

Fellow veteran Appleby tees up for just the third time in 2017 but with missed cuts at both Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach is still searching for form.

He seems fully recovered from the back injury which ended his 2015 campaign early in the year but getting back to his best is proving a difficult task and having limited playing opportuntites doesnlt help.

At the other end of the scale is Brett Drewitt who is playing his rookie year on the world’s biggest circuit and is still finding his feet at this level.

While he graduated from the 2016 Web.com Tour he, too, has only limited access to events and after a promising start to his campaign at the end of 2016 has found the going tougher since January.

Three missed cuts in four starts is hardly what he was looking for but he is more than capable of contending this week which would be a big confidence boost for him.

Cameron Percy and Steven Bowditch have both played in Puerto Rico multiple times, Bowditch with a best of T37 in 2014 while Percy’s T14 in 2013 was his best showing.