Matt Jones’ victory in last week’s Honda Classic moved him back into the top 50 in the world for the first time since the 2014 US Open and took the total number of Aussies to five, third only to the United States (22) and England (six) for highest representation by a single nation.

Three of the Aussie men currently in the top 50 – Cameron Smith (27), Marc Leishman (39) and Jason Day (47) – will contest the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas starting Friday morning while our two top-50 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings – Minjee Lee (10th) and Hannah Green (19th) – return to the LPGA Tour at the Kia Classic.

All told there are 20 Australians in action across six tours around the world this week and Allenby is adamant those numbers at the upper echelon of the rankings will only continue to grow.

“We’ve got so many great, exciting young guys coming up which is good for Australian golf,” said Allenby, who was one of four Aussies inside the top 50 when he last appeared that highly in the rankings in August 2011.

“Korn Ferry Tour has some amazing young talent out there too. Between the Korn Ferry and the main tour, Australian golf is in a great position.”

Lucas Herbert and Min Woo Lee have already notched wins on the European Tour early in their careers and have taken up opportunities to play on the PGA TOUR in 2021.

After just missing out on a spot in the WGC-Match Play, Herbert will tee it up at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in the Dominican Republic this week having finished tied for 46th at The Honda Classic.

Like many players of his era, Allenby’s path to the PGA TOUR went via the European Tour but given the restrictions on travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic the 49-year-old has urged young Aussies to head straight to the US.

“I like to see Lucas Herbert trying to make his way out here on the US Tour as well,” said Allenby.

“I saw that he was first alternate for the Match Play but he’s playing the Dominican this week which is great.

“He played pretty decent last week at The Honda which was good, that’s a tough course.

“We’ve got so many young kids who just need the opportunity now to play because of COVID.

“I went through Europe because Greg Norman told me it would be a great way to learn the trade, learn the travel, win and then come over to the US and perform.

“It worked really well for me and I had a lot of success on the US Tour and I had a lot of success on the European Tour as well.

“The US Tour is just the easiest commute there is for golf in the world. The European Tour you’ve got to travel the whole world to play it.

“It’s tough because the European Tour is not really a full schedule at the moment. The US is really the only place that’s got a stable thing going.

“The only thing with the US Tour right now and the way they play it, if you’re not ready for it you’re going to get beaten up.

“Our young guys all hit it well, they all hit it far enough and they’ve got great short games so there’s no reason why the young guys can’t perform over here.”

Round 1 tee times AEDT

World Golf Championships
Dell Technologies Match Play
Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas
11.56pm              Cameron Smith v Lanto Griffin
12.18am              Jason Day v Scottie Scheffler
5.04am Marc Leishman v Victor Perez

Defending champion: Kevin Kisner (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Geoff Ogilvy (2006, 2009), Jason Day (2014, 2016)
Top Aussie prediction: Jason Day
TV schedule: Live on GolfTV

PGA TOUR
Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Corales Golf Club, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
9.56pm*              Tim Wilkinson, Jhonattan Vegas, Rafa Cabrera Bello
10.18pm*            Greg Chalmers, Tyler Duncan, Martin Trainer
10.51pm              Aaron Baddeley, Fabián Gómez, Will Gordon
11.02pm              Rhein Gibson, Dominic Bozzelli, Thomas Pieters
11.13pm              Lucas Herbert, Zack Sucher, Ryan Brehm
3.07am John Senden, David Hearn, Patrick Rodgers

Defending champion: Hudson Swafford
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Lucas Herbert
TV schedule: Live 1am-4am Friday, Saturday; Live 5am-8am Sunday; Live 5.30am-8am Monday on Fox Sports 503.

LPGA Tour
Kia Classic
Aviara Golf Club, Carlsbad, California
1.33am Katherine Kirk, Dani Holmqvist, Mariah Stackhouse
1.44am*              Lydia Ko, Brooke M. Henderson, Jin Young Ko
6.11am Sarah Jane Smith, Amy Olson, Alena Sharp
6.44am Hannah Green, A Lim Kim, Sophia Popov
7.17am Minjee Lee, Georgia Hall, Eun-Hee Ji
7.39am Su Oh, Sarah Kemp, Haeji Kang

Defending champion: Nasa Hataoka (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Su Oh
TV schedule: Live 9am-12pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Fox Sports 503.

European Tour
Kenya Savannah Classic
Karen Country Club, Nairobi, Kenya

Round 1 scores
T13        Scott Hend         66
T26        Maverick Antcliff             67

Defending champion: Inaugural event
TV schedule: Live 9pm-2am Wednesday; Live 8pm-1am Thursday and Friday on Fox Sports 503.

PGA Tour-Latinoamerica
Mexico Open
Estrella del Mar Golf & Beach, Mazatlan, Mexico
1.50am*              Danny List, Alistair Docherty, Jason Thresher

Defending champion: Drew Nesbitt (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil

Symetra Tour
IOA Championship
Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon, Beaumont, California
Aussies in the field: Gabriela Ruffels, Stephanie Na, Robyn Choi

Defending champion: Fatima Fernandez Cano
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Gabriela Ruffels

* Starting from 10th tee