A winner on the European Tour last January, Herbert’s rise in the Official World Golf Rankings the past 18 months has opened the doors to play more Major tournaments, appear in World Golf Championship events and earn starts on the PGA TOUR.

Currently No.94 in the world rankings, this will be Herbert’s third start on the PGA TOUR for 2021 – he also played the WGC-Workday Championship in Florida – but he had to play his way into the tournament, a round of 5-under 65 enough to earn one of four spots on offer at Monday qualifying conducted at Gaston Country Club.

Two-under at the turn, Herbert picked up birdies at 10, 11, 13 and 15 to climb towards the top of the leaderboard, a bogey at the final hole providing for a nervous wait before his score was confirmed as the third best of the day.

Fellow Victorian Steve Allan wasn’t quite so fortunate, finishing one shot out of the playoff for the fourth and final spot with Mathew Goggin and Greg Chalmers also missing out.

The addition of Herbert takes the number of Aussies in the field at Quail Hollow to five with Jason Day and Matt Jones to make their first appearances since The Masters along with Cameron Percy and Cameron Davis, Day returning to the site of his most recent PGA TOUR win three years ago.

Queensland Open champion Andrew Evans and veteran West Australian Scott Strange have bolstered the Aussie contingent on the Japan Golf Tour this week to nine, making their first starts of the season at the Japan Players Championship starting Thursday morning.

Hannah Green will be eager to bounce back from her heartbreaking finish at the HSBC Women’s World Championship at the Honda LPGA Thailand while Rod Pampling, Stephen Leaney, David McKenzie and John Senden will contest the Champions Tour’s first major of the year, the Regions Tradition in Alabama.

All told there are 36 Aussies in action across eight tours this week.

Round 1 tee times AEST

Japan Golf Tour
Japan Players Championship
Nishi Nasuno Country Club, Tochigi
7.55am*              Todd Sinnott, Yasunobu Fukunaga, Yuto Soeda
8.15am Anthony Quayle, Hideto Kobukuro, Tomoharu Otsuki
8.45am Adam Bland, Hiroyuki Fujita, Shota Akiyoshi
12.10pm              Andrew Evans, Shota Matsumoto, Yuki Kono
12.40pm              Dylan Perry, Naoto Takayanagi, Yoshinori Fujimoto
12.40pm*            Brad Kennedy, Tomohiro Ishizaka, Tomoyo Ikemura
1pm       David Bransdon, Jinichiro Kozuma, Mikumu Horikawa
1.20pm Michael Hendry, Hyun-Woo Ryu, Ryuko Tokimatsu
1.20pm*              Matthew Griffin, Yoshitaka Takeya, Hideto Tanihara
1.40pm*              Scott Strange, Tomoyasu Sugiyama, Taihei Sato

Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Anthony Quayle

LPGA Tour
Honda LPGA Thailand
Siam Country Club (Pattaya Old Cse), Chonburi, Thailand
11.36am*            Su Oh, Brittany Altomare, Anna Nordqvist
12.12pm              Hannah Green, Hinako Shibuno, Shanshan Feng
12.24pm              Minjee Lee, Ayako Uehara, Atthaya Thitikul
12.24pm*            Katherine Kirk, Cheyenne Knight, Muni He
1pm       Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn, Amy Yang

Defending champion: Amy Yang (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Hannah Green
TV schedule: Live 1pm-6pm Thursday; Live 1.30pm-6.30pm Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 1.30pm-4.30pm on Fox Sports 505; 8am-10am Monday on Fox Sports 503.

Korean PGA Tour
The 40th GS Caltex Maekyung Open
Namseoul Country Club, Seongnam, South Korea
8.14am Kevin Chun
8.47am Wonjoon Lee
9.20am Junseok Lee
Defending champion: Lee Tae-hee
Past Aussie winners: Mike Clayton (1984)
Top Aussie prediction: Junseok Lee

European Tour
Canary Islands Championship
Golf Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Spain
5.10pm Maverick Antcliff, Max Schmitt, Dale Whitnell
6.16pm Jake McLeod, Ricardo Santos, Aaron Cockerill
10.55pm              Scott Hend, Matthew Southgate, Kalle Samooja
11.39pm*            Austin Bautista, Kristoffer Broberg, Alvaro Hernandez Cabezuela

Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Maverick Antcliff
TV schedule: Live 11pm-4am Thursday; Live 8pm-1am Friday; Live 10.30pm-2am Saturday; Live 9pm-2am Sunday on Fox Sports 503.

Challenge Tour
Dimension Data Pro-Am
Fancourt Golf Estate, George, South Africa
4.15pm*              Deyen Lawson, Jacques Kruyswijk, Dylan Naidoo
8.15pm Daniel Hillier, Jaco Ahlers, Hennie Du Plessis

Defending champion: Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Deyen Lawson

PGA TOUR
Wells Fargo Championship
Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, North Carolina
9.34pm Jason Day, CT Pan, Pat Perez
10.40pm*            Cameron Percy, Adam Schenk, Bo Hoag
11.02pm*            Lucas Herbert, Vincent Whaley, Akshay Bhatia
2.32am Cameron Davis, Harold Varner III, Brandon Hagy
3.27am Matt Jones, Keegan Bradley, Austin Cook
3.38am Danny Lee, Jonas Blixt, Xinjun Zhang

Defending champion: Max Homa (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Jason Day (2018)
Top Aussie prediction: Matt Jones
TV schedule: Live 4am-8am Friday, Saturday; Live 3am-8am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503.

Korn Ferry Tour
Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation
The Grove, College Grove, Tennessee
10.18pm              Steven Alker, Hayden Buckley, Kyle Reifers
10.51pm              Curtis Luck, Tommy Gainey, TJ Vogel
10.51pm*            Jamie Arnold, Nicholas Lindheim, Tyrone Van Aswegen
11.02pm              Brett Drewitt, Seth Reeves, Austin Smotherman
11.35pm              Nick Voke, Rico Hoey, Joseph Winslow
11.46pm*            Ryan Ruffels, Matt Atkins, Brent Grant
3.10am Brett Coletta, Peter Uihlein, Grant Hirschman
5.11am*              Harrison Endycott, Braden Thornberry, Sahith Theegala

Defending champion: Robby Shelton (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Cameron Davis (2018)
Top Aussie prediction: Brett Drewitt

Champions Tour
Regions Tradition
Greystone G&CC, Birmingham, Alabama
1.33am*              Rod Pampling, Stephen Leaney, Woody Austin
2.25am*              David McKenzie, Spike McRoy, Fred Funk
2.36am*              John Senden, Scott Verplank, Chris DiMarco

Defending champion: Steve Stricker
Past Aussie winners: Graham Marsh (1999)
Top Aussie prediction: Rod Pampling
TV schedule: Live 1am-4am Friday on Fox Sports 507; Live 1am-4am Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 5am-7.30am Sunday on Fox Sports 505; Live 5am-7.30am Monday on Fox Sports 507.

*Not starting from 1st tee