Having earned his way to the world’s premiere golf circuit, Brett Drewitt will be looking to build on a solid finish to 2016 when he makes his 2017 debut at this week’s CareerBuilder Challenge in California.

Drewitt is one of the success stories of the PGA TOUR’s pathways to the top of the game having first played his way to America via the PGA TOUR China then graduating from the Web.com Tour in 2016.

The 25-year-old has now teed up three times as a full member of the PGA TOUR and missed just one cut though with a best finish of T35 needs to make some improvements if he is to climb the FedEx Cup points table.

Drewitt presently sits 163^rd on the standings with only the top-125 maintaining playing rights for next year though at this early stage of the season there is no immediate pressure.

Six other Australians will join Drewitt in the field, Steven Bowdich and Geoff Ogilvy making their first starts of the new year while Aaron Baddeley, John Senden, Cameron Percy and Cameron Smith all tee up for the second time.

Senden failed to make much impression in missing the cut at last week‘s Sony Open in Hawaii though has a better track record at this event with just two missed weekends in 14 starts.

Percy hasn’t fared quite so well with three missed cuts from three attempts but the South Australian showed signs of decent form in the opening two rounds last week at Waialae.

A third round 74 saw him miss Sunday’s play but he will be better for the rum when he arrives in the California desert this week.

Another who started well but couldn’t quite go on with it was Cameron Smith whose opening 64 had him inside the top-5 after 18 holes.

But in a low scoring affair he fell off the pace despite being under par each of the next three rounds, a style of golf that he seems less suited to than when par is a well earned score.

Aaron Baddelely comes into the week off a T25 finish in the 32-man Tournament of Champions field and while he didn’t play his best golf at Kapalua he did finish on a high note.

His final round 69 was his best score of the week featuring five birdies after his lone bogey of the day at the opening hole.

The final two Australians in the field, Geoff Ogilvy and Steven Bowditch, have both had lengthy breaks and will be looking to use the week to shake off the competitive cobwebs.

Bowditch’s struggles in 2016 were well documented and he will be looking for a fresh start in 2017 while Ogilvy will be motivated by a near miss at the Australian Open in his last outing.