New Zealand’s Michael Hendry is set to take part in next week’s inaugural ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth tournament from 16-19 February at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

The West Australian course has been kind to Hendry in the past and despite missing the cut at last year’s ISPS HANDA Perth International, Lake Karrinyup presents some familiarity to his home course back in New Zealand, Gulf Harbour Country Club.

“I really enjoy Karrinyup as a golf course and Perth as a city is a great place to go to, I’m looking forward to getting there,” Hendry said.

“I played poorly there last year but my previous trips there have been good. It’s quite a similar course to Gulf Harbour where I’ve practiced a lot over the past 10 or 15 years.

“When I go there I can see some visual similarities so I’m quite comfortable around there.”

He said he’s looking forward to the tournaments innovative final round matchplay format and is intrigued to find out how his competitors will attack the course during the first three rounds of strokeplay.

“It’s going to be quite interesting to see guys devise a game plan, whether they’ll attack really hard for the first few or whether they’ll just try and get in to the first few holes without making any errors and hope that the other guy does.

“It’s going to be quite interesting tactically I think.”

Hendry said he can see the method in both attacking and playing conservatively in an effort to make the final cut of 24 players heading in to round four.

“I think my approach is going to be quite similar to how I would play strokeplay, always trying to make birdie every hole you play if it’s at all possible.

“But then there’s some holes you might stand on the tee and think there’s no way you can make birdie unless you hit a miracle shot or get a great bounce so in that case you’ll probably play conservatively and hope to hole something from length to make a birdie that way,” added Hendry.

“Then there is some merit in saying if you didn’t bogey any of the six holes that you play during all of your matches you’ve probably got a pretty good chance but you definitely want to throw some birdies in there to make sure of it.”

The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth will also see Hendry catch up with his compatriot and good mate Ryan Fox, currently competing on the European Tour.

“It’s always great fun catching up with Foxy, he’s such a gun and a great guy as well, we get along really well and spend a lot of time with each other off the golf course.

“It’ll be great to have an opportunity to play with him potentially, it’s pretty impressive when he’s on, he hits the ball such a long way and its pretty good fun just watching him play golf.”

Hendry has hopes of joining Fox on the European Tour; he’ll be looking for strong performances with a full book of tournaments in upcoming co-sanctioned and tri-sanctioned events.

His schedule on the Japan Tour has fallen nicely in between other tournaments around the world, putting him in the best position to earn a full-time spot on the European Tour.

“With some success in the WGC’s, Perth and the other co-sanctioned events would see me earn enough money to get a card on the European Tour next year.

“So that’s kind of in the background and hopefully those tournaments go the way I want them to and then I’ll give myself the choice whether I want to play in Japan or go somewhere different for a while.”