Griggs is one of 11 Americans in the field at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club, the majority earning status for the new 2025-2026 season via the historic Qualifying School held in Georgia in July.

Griggs, a graduate of UCLA, finished 19th at Kinderlou Forest and needs to start his season well to earn starts in the biggest tournaments as the season advances.

Like his travel companions from the United States, Griggs is making his first trip Down Under yet it is familiar territory for his uncle, JJ West.

West was a regular visitor to Australia between 1996-2000, his best result a tie for fourth when Bradley Hughes claimed the 1996 Australian Players Championship at Robina Woods on the Gold Coast.

Griggs will make his debut on Australian soil at the Tailor-Made Building Services NT PGA Championship in a fortnight’s time but is already embracing the adventure ahead.

“Funnily enough, my uncle played on the Australian tour back in the day, back in the ‘90s, so I’ve known about it for a long time,” said Griggs.

“Just recently I was doing a lot of Monday qualifiers for the Korn Ferry, PGA TOUR and then PGA TOUR Americas and then I got an e-mail for the Australian Tour.

“I’ve known that it’s pretty legit so I figured might as well go take a crack at that.

“I was lucky enough to get some status and get into the first two events, so I’m pretty happy.”

Another of the US contingent eager to make a strong early impression is Ty Gingerich.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati last year, Gingerich won the 2024 Indiana Amateur Championship and the Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship.

Tied fifth at Qualifying School in Georgia, Gingerich is not yet exempt for the BMW Australian PGA Championship or the men’s Australian Open, something he is eager to rectify during the early part of the season.

“As of now, I’m not exempt for Aussie PGA or Aussie Open, so I’d like to work my way into playing in those events and kind of go from there,” said Gingerich.

“I guess the first goal is the start of the season and then hopefully, by the end of the season, to win the Order of Merit would be great.

“There’s a lot of good opportunity here on the Australian tour. I saw the e-mail come about Q School and kind of did some research and seemed like a good opportunity for me.

“I didn’t have any status this year, so thought I might as well go play and see what I can get out of it, and it worked out well.”

Led by Q School medallist Chris Malec, the other American players in the field this week are Nathan Jordi, Ben Carpenter, Brock Healy, Kameron Williams, Scotty Kennon, Viraj Garewal, Matthew Cleary and Colin Andrade.

Brisbane’s William Bruyeres returns as defending champion along with 2023 champion Lachlan Barker and seven tournament winners from the 2024-2025 season.

Round 1 tees off Thursday at 7am AEST.

Photo: Joel Isbister/PGA of Australia