For 22 Australian Professionals this week is one of the most important of their careers as they battle to earn full playing privileges on the Asian Tour.

From rookies to seasoned veterans it’s a nerve wracking four days which will ultimately determine their working life for the next 12 months.

Nine had already booked their place in the field in Thailand this week through various performances during the year while a further 13 earned their start via last week’s first stage.

Former standout amateurs Lucas Herbert and Jarryd Felton will be among the players to watch, Felton already a winner at the NSW PGA and Herbert, who finished stage one of the PGA Tour of Australasia Q-School on top of the section B leaderboard last December, is believed by many to be a star of the future.

The full list of Australians playing this week is: Josh Younger, Jake Higginbottom, Rick Kulacz, Darren Beck, David Gleeson, Marcus Both, Daniel Fox, Kris Mueck, David Lutterus, Michael Wright, Gavin Fairfax, Deyen Lawson, Jason Chellew, Martin Dive, Darren Tan, Kevin Lee, Gavin Flint, Cory Crawford, Mitchell Brown, Neven Basic, Jarryd Felton and Lucas Herbert.

China Q-School is also underway with five Australians sitting inside the top-10 after the first round of the PGA TOUR China qualifying School in Yunnan Province.

Jake Younan is joint leader after an opening round 69 with Daniel Nisbet a shot further back and T4. Anthnoy Houston, Nathan Park and Peter Martin are all T8 after opening with 1-under-par scores.

Andrew Evans, who finished T2 at the Australian Masters last year, is T17 after an even par 72.

Others in the field are Theodore Coroneo (T22), Christopher Wood and Mitch Davis (T26), Kingsley Kelly and Brad Moules (T44), Mark Leich (T66), amateur Simon Vitakngas (T69) and Tim Hart (T76).

15 players will earn cards this week with another 15 on offer next week at a second international qualifying event.