13 time Japan Tour winner Brendan Jones will be searching for victory number 14, but his first with a short putter in the bag, when he tees up in this week’s Heiwa PGM Championship.

Jones has used a broomstick since before turning Professional but has been practising with the short putter for several weeks and put it into play in a tournament for the first time last week.

The results were encouraging with a T6 result at the Mynavi ABC Championship after four straight birdies early in the final round saw him hold a share of the lead.

Jones told Bruce Young on his website brendanjonesgolf.com last week he felt confident with the short putter and a little more practise time would yield even better results.

This week’s tournament is one of the five most lucrative on the Japan Tour and will see seven Australasians tee up.

Jones will be joined by Adam Bland, David Smail, Brad Kennedy, Kurt Barnes, Steve Conran and Scott Strange.

Bland and Kennedy are currently battling for top Australasian honours on the Order of Merit with Bland 34th, Kennedy 35th and New Zealand’s Michael Hendry 36th.

With Hendry teeing up in the WGC event in China this week the Australians have a chance to separate themselves with some of the biggest events of the year still to come.

Barnes, Conran and Strange all need some good results in coming weeks as all three are further down the money list than they would like.