It’s been a difficult 2016 for Steven
Bowditch but that could turn around this week in Texas when the Queenslander
defends his Byron Nelson crown in Dallas.

Bowditch claimed his second PGA TOUR title,
and second in Texas, with a wire to wire victory in 2015 and will have plenty
of good memories to draw on when he steps to the first tee Thursday.

A resident of the Fort Worth area since
2006, Bowditch’s wedding reception was held at the tournament’s host venue, TPC
Four Seasons, and he has a strong following among local golf fans.

And while his form this season has been
less than his best, partly due to a tendonitis issue in his left wrist,
Bowditch has proven in the past he is a player capable of turning things around
dramatically in short time.

Prior to his first win at the Texas Open in
2014 Bowditch missed three cuts in four starts while last year boasted three
missed cuts and a disqualification in the seven tournaments prior to his
victory.

Coming off five consecutive missed cuts
this year won’t be an issue for the 32-year-old who is capable of shooting low
scores at the TPC Las Colinas layout.

Bowditch opened with a 62 last year on his
way to an 18-under total for a four shot victory and the memories of that
magical week might be just the tonic to turn his game around this week.

There will be 12 Australians teeing up at
this week’s Byron Nelson, a tournament which has been kind to those from Down
Under over the years.

Peter Thomson was the first to win the
title in 1956 with Bruce Devlin (1969), Adam Scott (2008) and Jason Day (2010)
also engraving their names on the trophy.

Dallas is a popular base for Australia’s Touring
Professionals, plying their trade in the US with local residents Rod Pampling,
Greg Chalmers, Cameron Percy and John Senden all joining Bowditch in the field
this week.

Percy will be the one to watch from that
group as he comes into the week off a T4 on the Web.com Tour and was T10 here
last year, his best finish in four career starts.

Playing on conditional status in 2016,
Percy’s opportunities have been limited and he will be motivated to cash in on
current form as he tries to get back full playing rights for 2017.

Likewise Rod Pampling has had limited
starts this year after graduating from the Web.com Tour in 2015 and while he
boasts only moderate success at this venue, with just two top-10’s in 14
starts, will be keen to add around this week.

Fellow Texan Greg Chalmers has been a
regular at the Dallas stop making 15 career starts but would like to improve on
his previous best of T16 which came in 2009.

The last of the locals, John Senden, also
has a patchy record at the tournament and after a missed cut at TPC Sawgrass
would no doubt like to get back on track.

Aaron Baddeley, Matt Jones, Robert Allenby,
Marc Leishman, Stuart Appleby, Rhein Gibson and Cameron Smith round out the
Australian presence.

Of that group only Leishman has previous
good form at the course with two top-five finishes to his name in the last four
years.

The Victorian was T3 in 2014 and third
outright in 2012 and is in moderate form having made the cut last week at
Sawgrass.

Rookies Smith and Gibson aside, the rest
have less than stellar records with Baddeley missing three cuts in five
previous appearances, Stuart Appleby six in nine starts and Matt Jones three of
four times.