There will be a distinctly Australian flavour to the inaugural Sabah Masters in Malaysia this week with five PGA Tour of Australasia regulars invited to tee it up at Sutera Harbour Golf and Country Club.
The tropical setting is host to an Asian Tour event for the first time with the invitations extended to five Australians extending our representation to 15.
Those to have been added to the field include NT PGA champion Brett Rankin, PGA TOUR Series-China regulars Aaron Wilkin and Cory Crawford, two-time Asian Tour winner Rick Kulacz and Nabil Abdul who was top 20 at the Asian Development Tour’s PGM Sabah ADT Championship in September.
While those five will be hoping to turn an invitation into an Asian Tour card with a win, the Habitat for Humanity standings remain a point of priority for the likes of Travis Smyth and Daniel Fox, currently 59th and 66th respectively on the Order of Merit.
Now in its 46th year, the time-honoured Dunlop Phoenix tournament will see six Aussies and Kiwi Michael Hendry taking part alongside some of golf’s biggest names at Phoenix Country Club, including Australian PGA-bound American Cameron Champ and Presidents Cup representatives Hideki Matsuyama and Gary Woodland.
West Australian Jason Scrivener and Queensland’s Scott Hend will fly the flag for Australia at the final event of the European Tour season, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai while the PGA TOUR wraps up for 2019 with the RSM Classic at Sea Island in Georgia, Cameron Percy, Aaron Baddeley, Matt Jones, Rhein Gibson and Cameron Davis endeavouring to bank some additional FedEx Cup points.
Asian Tour
Sabah Masters
Sutera Harbour Golf and Country Club
9.50am Nabil Abdul, Greg Haenen, Timothy Lo Tien Ming (a)
9.50am* Josh Younger, Sungho Lee, Pawin Ingkhapradit
10am Nathan Buzimkic, Keegan Kam, Cameron Van Rooyen
10.40am David Gleeson, Priyanshu Singh, Marc Ong
10.40am* Rick Kulacz, Mardan Mamat, Suttijet Kooratanapisan
10.50am Daniel Fox, Abhijit Chadha, Hongtaek Kim
11.20am Brett Rankin, Udayan Mane, Pasavee Lertvilai
3.05pm* Shae Wools-Cobb, Masaharu Kawaguchi, Kenneth Tobuse
3.15pm Andrew Martin, Kwanchai Tannin, Chanyoung Park
3.15pm* Jack Munro, Yutaka Araki, Kenneth De Silva
3.25pm* Aaron Wilkin, Dookyun Won, Jeremy Wendelken
3.35pm Travis Smyth, Taewoo Kim, Xiao Bowen
3.35pm* Jack Murdoch, George Worrall, Alvaro Velasco
3.55pm* Cory Crawford, Ryan Chisnall, Maxwin Chiew
Japan Tour
Dunlop Phoenix
Phoenix Country Club, Miyazaki
10.50am Matthew Griffin, Rattanon Wannasrichan, Ryosuke Kinoshita
11am Michael Hendry, Shunya Takeyasu, Ryuji Masaoka
11.30am Brendan Jones, Masahiro Kawamura, Kyung-Tae Kim
12.30pm Adam Bland, Tomoyo Ikemura, Min-Gyu Cho
12.35* Anthony Quayle, Won Joon Lee, Yuta Kinoshita
12.45pm* Brad Kennedy, Wen-Chong Liang, Tatsuya Kodai
European Tour
DP World Tour Championship
Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE
3.30pm Scott Hend, Joachim B. Hansen
4.40pm Jason Scrivener, Mike Lorenzo-Vera
PGA TOUR
RSM Classic
Sea Island Resort, Sea Island, Georgia
12.15am* Cameron Percy, Joel Dahmen, Sam Ryder
1.25am* Aaron Baddeley, Scott Stallings, Robert Garrigus
1.35am* Tim Wilkinson, David Lingmerth, Ben Crane
1.55am Matt Jones, Adam Hadwin, Kevin Streelman
2.05am* Rhein Gibson, Robby Shelton, Davis Riley
2.15am* Cameron Davis, Hank Lebioda, Akshay Bhatia
All times AEDT
* Signifies starting from the 10th tee