Lucas Herbert and Ryan Fox will both ramp up their European Tour seasons and break a six-week hiatus when they tee it up in the Betfred British Masters.

To be hosted by Hillside Golf Club in Southport, England for the first time in the event’s history, the British Masters will feature 10 Australians and New Zealand’s Fox, who is making just his fourth start since breaking through for his first European Tour title at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth tournament in February.

Fox, who made a mad dash to Mexico to play a World Golf Championships event and was married the week after running 11th at the New Zealand Open, missed the cut in the British Masters at Walton Heath last October.

With a history of strong performances through the middle of the year, Fox will be hoping to build on his tie for 36th in his last start at the Maybank Championship and kick-off the busy part of the season with a strong showing at Hillside.

Like Fox, Herbert has had only a handful of starts since Perth and comes in off a last start result of tied for 25th at the Maybank Championship won by Scott Hend.

In its later slot on the schedule, Herbert’s tie for third at the British Masters last year was part of his extraordinary run that carried all the way through to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Now ranked No.94 in the world, the Victorian has had just one top-10 finish on the European Tour since the British Masters, a tie for seventh at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic that was highlighted by a second round of 9-under 63.

As he pushes for the additional prize money he needs to be eligible for an unlimited number of sponsor invitations, Min Woo Lee has accepted an invitation to play this week confident after a tie for 14th at last week’s Volvo China Open.

Hend will be hoping to solidify his place inside the Race to Dubai top-20 while the likes of Wade Ormsby, Jason Scrivener, Sam Brazel, Jake McLeod, Deyen Lawson and Nick Cullen will be eager to improve their position on the order of merit.

Dimi Papadatos’s Challenge Tour ranking from 2018 has secured another start on the main tour.

The Challenge Tour is in Prague this week for the Prague Golf Challenge where Ben Eccles is the sole Aussie representative hoping to break a run of two missed cuts.