Fresh off a brilliant Sunday performance at the Presidents Cup Adam Scott will spearhead a strong Australian challenge at this week’s prestigious Japan Open.

The 2013 Masters champion plays the event for the second time having finished a disappointing T38 last year thanks to a frustrating third round of 75 but will have higher expectations in 2015.

The highest world ranked player in the field, Scott will put his new short putter into play in a stroke play tournament for the first time since March having wielded it to great effect in defeating Rickie Fowler 6&5 on Sunday.

Scott is one of nine Australasians hoping to become just the third player from this country to put their name on the Japan Open trophy, Craig Parry in 1997 and Paul Sheehan in 2006 the only two to achieve the feat so far.

Lining up at the Rokko Kokusai Golf Club’s East Course are Brendan Jones, Scott Strange, Brad Kennedy, Adam Bland, Won Joon Lee and amateur Lucas Herbert as well as New Zealand’s Michael Hendry.

Kennedy has been the most consistent performer so far this year in Japan and is the only Australasian inside the top-10 on the Order of Merit despite not posting a victory.

He has missed just two cuts in 13 starts but has posted five top-10’s, including three second place finishes along the way.

A two-time winner on the Japan Tour Kennedy won’t be overawed if he can get near the top of the leader board come Sunday and as well as he’s played this year, a third victory seems likely before the season is done.

After almost two seasons of disruption with a wrist injury Brendan Jones has been slowly finding form in recent weeks and while he has 13 Japan Tour titles to his name, the Open is not one of them.

He will be looking to rectify that this week on a golf course where he has previously won, taking the Asia Pacific Panasonic Open when it was played here in 2010.

The course will no doubt play differently for this week’s event but those memories will still be good ones for Jones to draw on.

Scott Strange is another whose 2015 form has been good and he comes into the tournament off another solid performance last week.

With two top-10’s and just two missed cuts in 14 starts Strange seems to have found his feet in Japan and if his putter behaves could be a contender this week.

Since winning the third event of the season it’s been a mixed bag for South Australia’s Adam Bland who would like nothing more than to add the Japan Open title to his Japan PGA crown.

That victory is his only top-10 in 13 starts for the season and he comes into the week off his third missed cut of the year last week.

However, with his card secured and the confidence of a first career victory behind him the left-hander is in excellent position to free wheel and could turn his form around any given week.

New Zealand’s Michael Hendry has followed a similar path to Bland this year, winning the first event of the season but struggling to put four rounds together since.

He has missed six of 12 cuts this year, including his last outing three weeks ago, but fresh from a break will be motivated to have a good week.

The final two Australians in the field, Won Joon Lee and Paul Sheehan, are unknown quantities this week, Sheehan playing for the first time since the Japan PGA in May and Lee teeing up in his first Japan Open.