After a poor week at the Valspar Championship Adam Scott will be seeking redemption at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational where he squandered a seven shot 36-hole lead last year to finish third.

The Queenslander’s capitulation in the final round, where a 4-over 76 saw him overtaken by both eventual champion Matt Every and 2011 PGA winner Keegan Bradley, was the lowlight of a 2014 season which later saw him reach Number 1 in the world rankings.

However, as disappointing as his final round was the excitement of his opening round 62 will be what Scott draws on when he steps on the first tee Thursday.

With two weeks of competitive golf now under his belt, despite last week’s missed cut, the 2013 Masters winner has likely found his groove again and it would be a surprise if he wasn’t in the mix come Sunday.

As one of the strongest fields of the year gathers in Florida Scott won’t have it all his own way with competition coming from all sides, including from fellow Queenslander Jason Day.

Day is just one spot behind Scott in the Official World Golf Ranking (four and five respectively) and has already won on TOUR this year.

With the focus of the world’s best shifting to Augusta National in just three weeks’ time Day will be in full competitor mode this week despite having a less than stellar record at this tournament.

In four starts the 26-year-old has a best finish of T25 to go with one missed cut and a withdrawal in 2009.

He didn’t tee up last year due to an injury sustained in winning the WGC Matchplay event but is in good health this year and likely to improve on his previous results at Bay Hill.

While Scott and Day will demand most of the Australian focus 2006 winner Rod Pampling will go quietly about his business and could surprise this week.

After a close call at the opposite field Puerto Rico Open a fortnight ago Pampling opened with a superb 68 at last week’s Valspar before fading with a second round 77 to miss the cut.

Having been in the golf doldrums for a couple of years Pampling showed a resurgence over the Australian summer and has continued to build on that good play early in 2015.

He has broken 70 in seven of 17 rounds across both the Web.com and PGA TOURs since February and with last week’s stumble likely only a blip on the radar there could be more good to come this week.

A total of seven Australians are guaranteed a start this week with Aaron Baddeley listed as an alternate.

John Senden, Matt Jones, Steven Bowditch and Marc Leishman round out the Australian challenge.

Jones will be fresh off a three week break and played well here last year for a top 15 finish.

Both Senden and Leishman have mixed results at Bay Hill, Senden a best of T4 in in 2009 and Leishman T3 in 2011.

Bowditch makes his first appearance this year but having missed five consecutive cuts since the Sony Open in January needs to improve dramatically to be a factor.