Former champion Aaron Baddeley will be one to watch among the Australians at this week’s RBC Heritage Classic, the 36-year-old rounding into form nicely heading to a course where he has had previous success.

The 2006 champion at Hilton Head, Baddeley has also been runner-up and posted two other top-10’s in 12 appearances at the event which was the site of his first PGA TOUR victory.

But while he will take plenty of good memories to the first tee Thursday, Baddeley also brings recent form to the table having broken a run of outs with a T41 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational then backing up with a T15 in Houston a fortnight ago.

Historically one of the best putters on the PGA TOUR, Baddeley’s statistics in that category have been down this year and an improvement on the greens this week could see him contend.

Baddeley is one of eight Australians teeing up this week with Marc Leishman and Rod Pampling backing up after the year’s first Major.

They will also be joined by Greg Chalmers, John Senden, Steven Bowditch, Cameron Smith and Geoff Ogilvy with Ogilvy boasting the best record of the group.

The 2006 US Open winner has missed the cut at Hilton Head just once in 10 starts and has a best finish of T3 though that came 14 years ago.

Ogilvy has been in a two steps forward-one step back pattern in 2017 and broke a run of three straight missed cuts when T23 in Houston two weeks ago.

Playing the season on a once only career money list exemption, there is some urgency to play well and while he has shown flashes of his capabilities at times this year he is yet to put all facets of the game together for four straight rounds.

Also bringing good memories to Hilton Head this week will be Queenslander Cameron Smith who finished T15 on debut here in 2016.

Like Ogilvy, Smith has shown glimpses of his best in 2017 but has struggled to maintain consistency with a series of mid-field finishes.

A week off after missing his third cut of the season in Houston a fortnight ago will have afforded the opportunity to work on his game and he is due a good week.

There is little to suggest good performances for the remaining Australians, John Senden missing five of his last six cuts and Greg Chalmers seven of his last mine.

Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Marc Leishman was undone by a run of difficult holes late Saturday at The Masters and if fatigue isn’t an issue after an exhausting couple of weeks he may be in the hunt come Sunday.