The Australian pairing of Scott Hend and Sam Brazel will face the US, Portugal and Wales on day one of the European Tour’s innovative Golf Sixes tournament at the weekend.

The draw for the two day teams event was announced live on TV in the UK overnight, Australia part of Group C for the pool matches to be played Saturday at the Centurion Club north of London.

The two man teams will play six hole matches using a ‘greensomes’ format where both players hit tee shots before choosing the best ball then playing alternate shot thereafter.

The 16 teams will play three matches each on Saturday with quarter finals, semi-finals and finals to be played Sunday.

Brazel and Hend have drawn Group C for the Saturday matches alongside the US, Portugal and Wales on day one.

First up they will play The American team of David Lipsky and Paul Petersen, Petersen a maiden winner at last year’s D+D Real Czech Masters while Lipsky won the Omega European Masters three years ago.

In round two they meet the Portugal pairing of Ricardo Gouveia and José-Filipe Lima, Lima an accomplished veteran on the Tour while Gouveia is playing just his third season.

The third match of the day sees the Australians meet their toughest opponents when they face the veteran Welsh pairing of Bradley Dredge and Ryder Cup player Jamie Donaldson.

Dredge is a two-time European Tour winner in his 427 starts while Donaldson boasts three Tour wins though has been out of form in 2017.

Should the Australians win the pool stage they will face the runners-up from Group B, made up of Thailand, Scotland, Belgium and Spain.

If they finish runner-up in the Pool stage their chances are still alive as they will meet the winners from Pool B.