After making his first cut in 12 months
last week on the back of almost two years lost to injury, Scott Gardiner
returns to a course where he has a top five finish on his resume when he tees
up at the Web.com Tour’s United Leasing Championship.

Gardiner, playing on a medical extension in
2016, finished T4 at this event in 2012 which will give him some hope looking
ahead as he tries to earn the $66,147 he needs to ensure his card.

The former PGA TOUR player has 10 events to
achieve that goal and this week marks his fifth start and with the clock
ticking he will be well aware he needs to lift quickly.

Gardiner is one of nine Australasians
teeing up this week and, New Zealand’s Josh Geary aside, all will be feeling a
similar sense of urgency.

It has been an indifferent start to the
season for the Australian contingent as they battle to make the top-25 on the
money list and earn a PGA TOUR card for 2017.

To date only Geary is on track to do that,
the PGA Tour China graduate presently sitting 26^th in the standings
with Steve Allan the best of the Australians in 58^th.

While there is plenty of golf still to be
played this year all the Australians need a dramatic turnaround in form, Allan,
Greg Chalmers (T71) and Bryden Macpherson (91st) the only players currently
inside the top-100.

Working in their favour is the return of
the Tour to predominantly US sites starting this week, the traditional South
American swing to start the year now complete.

Only one more event of the 14 remaining
regular season tournaments will be played outside the US but, on the flip side,
there is little in the way of downtime for the rest of the year.

Just two empty slots appear on the schedule
between this week’s tournament and the beginning of the four event series which
will decide PGA TOUR cards for 2017 leaving players little time to recover
between tournaments.