Nick Cullen and Daniel Gaunt will fly the flag for Australia at this week’s Challenge Tour event in France, both on the outside looking in for 2017 status in Europe.

Cullen is 50^th on the Road to Oman rankings while Gaunt is 59^th, only the top-45 at season’s end assured of teeing up again next year.

With limited status on Europe’s secondary Tour and living full time in the US, Cullen has made only a handful of starts in 2016 but a T2 at his last outing, also in France, will give him some confidence heading into the Cordon Open in Pleneuf.

Gaunt, meanwhile, has split his time between the Challenge and main European Tours this year with his last outing a missed cut at the Made in Denmark tournament last week.

His play on the secondary Tour has been inconsistent for most of the year, a T4 in the Czech Republic in May the highlight.