After the closest of calls last week in Switzerland Queensland’s Scott Hend travels to this week’s KLM Open among the favourites to capture one of the European Tour’s oldest and most prestigious titles.

While he lost a play-off to Alex Noren at Crans sur Sierre, Hend showed some spectacular form at the stunning Swiss layout and will be keen to keep that going this week.

The ultimate confidence player, Hend feeds off good performances and will be in an attacking mood at The Dutch, a new venue for the tournament, when play gets underway Thursday.

Hend is one of eight Australians in the field with Terry Pilkadaris earning an invitation to join Brett Rumford, Marcus Fraser, Andrew Dodt, Jason Scrivener, Richard Green and Nathan Holman.

Green, who lost a playoff at this tournament a decade ago, has been rebuilding his game in recent weeks and at 130^th on the Race to Dubai will be keen to impress this week.

He opened with two excellent rounds last week in Switzerland before fading at the weekend but will take some confidence to the first tee Thursday.

Rumford, likewise, had his struggles in Switzerland with a disastrous 84 in the third round. However, he righted the ship Sunday with a 69 and after some frustration in recent weeks could be one to watch this week.

Both Holman and Scrivener are in need of some confidence boosting play, Holman posting just two sub 70 scores in his last seven tournaments while Scrivener has missed seven of his last eight cuts.