Reigning Australian PGA champion Nathan
Holman gets his first taste of PGA TOUR golf this week when he tees up at Jack
Nicklaus’ prestigious Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

The 25-year-old earned an invite to the
event thanks to topping the 2015 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

While Holman played the WGC Cadillac
Championship in Florida in March, that event is run by the International
Federation of PGA Tours so this marks his first foray into a tournament run
exclusively by the PGA TOUR.

The Memorial is one of the most sought
after titles on the American circuit and Holman brings decent form after a mid
field finish at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last week.

Playing his first season as a full member
of the European Tour, 2016 has been a mixed bag for Holman results wise though
his game continues to hold up at the highest level.

He has missed just three cuts in 11 starts
and while he has only one top-10 outside his Royal Pines triumph, it has been a
creditable performance for a rookie.

This week will be another steep learning curve
as six of the world’s top-10 golfers take their place in the field including
the top-three, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

Holman is one of 10 Australians in the
field and while World Number 1 Day will attract the bulk of attention the rest
of the Down Under contingent is not without hope.

Marc Leishman has been quietly going about
his business in 2016 and after a T5 finish at Muirfield Village last year will
like his chances this week.

He was a model of consistency at last
week’s event at Colonial and while he has only registered one top-10 for the
season he tends to lift at the biggest tournaments.

With a busy northern hemisphere summer
schedule upcoming this is the part of the year where he will be keen to peak
and it would be no surprise if he were in the mix again this week.

Also starting in Ohio are Stuart Appleby,
Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones, John Senden, Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley and the
rookie Ryan Ruffels.

Ogilvy makes his first appearance since
2013 and while it was a disappointing finish for him last week he showed signs
of life when he went 4-under over the opening nine holes at Colonial.

For a player of his ability Ogilvy’s form
has been inexplicably poor but as he showed when he claimed his last PGA TOUR
title in 2014, that can change overnight.

The 2006 US Open champion has three top-10
finishes at Memorial to draw on and it would do wonders for his confidence if
he could find some form this week.

For Stuart Appleby the week is an important
one as it offers one of the biggest purses of the year and the 20 year TOUR
veteran needs to amass $242,773 in the six remaining events of his major
medical extension to retain playing rights for 2017.

Aaron Baddeley will also looK to regain
some of his early year from after a mini slump in recent weeks.

At 91st on the FedEx Cup standings he is
not guaranteed to finish in the top-125 and keep his card for next year so
needs to make the most of all opportunities

While Baddeley has lost form in recent
weeks Queensland’s Steven Bowditch has found some, a top-25 finish at last
week’s Colonial his most encouraging play since January.

Bowditch has only two previous appearances
at Muirfield Village for a best result of T52 but he will be motivated after
last week’s mini resurgence and he could easily improve on that.

Matt Jones and John Senden are both
struggling for form in 2016 and a scan of their results at The Memorial does
little to boost confidence this week.

Senden was T7 in 2011, his only top-25 in
seven tries, while Jones has missed the cut in three of six appearances though
has a best of T6 in 2013.

The final Australian in the field is
teenager Ryan Ruffels who plays for the firsT time since a T20 finish at the
rain interrupted tournament in New Orleans a month ago.

Ruffels has played six times on the PGA
TOUR to date and missed three cuts but has shown glimpses of the world class
game which attracted so much attention as an amateur.

Allowed only seven sponsor’s exemptions as
a non member it seems unlikely the 18-year-old will earn his 2017 card through
good results though a top-10 finish this week would earn him another
opportunity next week.