Marc Leishman makes his return to tournament golf at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week with a renewed attitude after his wife Audrey endured a major health scare the week before The Masters.

Leishman withdrew from the year’s first major after Audrey
fell ill and was placed in an induced coma suffering respiratory distress.

The 31-year-old told AAP’s Ben Everill this week there had
been genuine concerns for her survival and he was returning to the game with a
fresh outlook.

"This certainly puts things into perspective," said Leishman.

"If you make a bogey, who cares, they happen, just fight
back best you can."

Leishman is one of 11 Australians who will tee up this week,
a season high enabled by the fact many of the PGA TOUR’s top players skip this
event to prepare for next week’s WGC Matchplay.

PGA TOUR regulars Jason Day, John Senden, Cameron Percy,
Steven Bowditch, Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley and Leishman will be joined by
Jarrod Lyle, Scott Gardiner, Greg Chalmers and Cameron Smith.

Smith is playing on a sponsor’s invite after his best result
on American soil at last week’s RBC Heritage while Gardiner is listed as
playing on a minor medical extension.

Greg Chalmers earns his spot for finishing 126-150 on last
year’s FedEx Cup while Lyle is listed as one of 45 ‘Top finishers from Web.com
Tour prior season’.

While the experts are predicting one of the bigger names in
the field to prevail history says this tournament has been kind to first time
winners and Chalmers, in particular, should be encouraged by that.

The TPC Louisiana course has been a happy place for the
left-hander who has finished under par each of the six times the tournament has
been played here, two of those in the top-10.

He has a low round of 64, has never shot worse than 73 and
after winning the Australian PGA Championship in dashing style last year vowed
to bring a renewed attitude to his limited starts on the PGA TOUR in 2015.

This tournament would seem ideally suited to that goal,
especially given seven of the past 10 champions have been first time Tour
winners and Chalmers is yet to claim his first PGA TOUR title.

Of the other Australians Cameron Smith will be one to watch
having finally displayed some of his better golf at last week’s tournament at
Harbour Town.

This is the 22-year-old Queenslander’s sixth sponsor’s
invitation but prior to finishing T15 last week he had missed the cut in all.

Playing with confidence can only be a positive for Smith and
it would be a surprise if he didn’t back up with another good performance.

History suggests the rest of the Australian contingent have
found the going tough at this golf course, Robert Allenby posting a best of T25
last year while Aaron Baddeley has one missed cut and one made for a best of
T28.

John Senden has never finished in the top-10 at TPC
Louisiana while Steven Bowditch’s record is even less impressive having made
the cut only once in four attempts.

Jason Day, a favourite with many experts, tees up for only
the third time and first since 2009 with a missed cut and T32 finish to show
for his troubles.

As the world number six it would be no surprise to see him
at the pointy end of the leader board on Sunday but on past form there is
little to suggest that will be the case.

Jarrod Lyle, desperately needing to bank some money in his
quest to get back to the PGA TOUR, missed the cut in his last appearance here
in 2011 but was T10 in 2010 so he has some form on the layout and with
everything to play for this might just be his week.