They were teammates in Rio but Marcus Fraser and Scott Hend will resume their battle for the Asian Tour Order of Merit title in Macao this week.
They were teammates in Rio but Marcus Fraser and Scott Hend will resume their battle for the Asian Tour Order of Merit title in Macao this week.
The pair are among 16 Australians taking their place in the Macao Open field, Hend holding the advantage over Fraser as the defending champion and a two time winner of the event.
Hend holds a $90,000 lead over his Australian counterpart in the race for top Asian earner and is determined to hold on to the title after finishing second twice in the past three years.
Hend and Fraser are among a 15 strong Australian contingent which includes Asian Tour regulars Sam Brazel, Terry Pilkadaris, Unho Park, Adam Groom, Scott Barr and Kalem Richardson.
Richardson comes into the week off his best performance of the year in Indonesia last week, a T8 result moving him to 72nd on the Order of Merit but needing to be top 60 at season’s end to retain playing rights.
Barr, too, played his way up the Order of Merit with a strong finish in Indonesia and, like Richardson, will be looking to build on that this week.
Others in the field this week are David Gleeson, Michael Wright, Marcus Both, Josh Younger, Darren Tan, Lucas Herbert and reigning US Amateur and Asia Pacific Amateur champion Curtis Luck.
Both Luck and Herbert received sponsor’s invites to the tournament, Herbert in particular keen for a good result as qualifying schools round the world loom in coming months.