After grabbing the last spot in the 2014 US Masters with a win at the Houston Open Matt Jones is making another late bid for a place in the year’s first Major.

His third place finish at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational moved Jones to 62 in the Official World Golf Ranking and another high finish at this week’s Texas Open could see him into the top-50 and a berth at Augusta National.

Jones joins defending champion Steven Bowditch and five others in the field at the TPC San Antonio, statistically one of the most difficult courses the TOUR plays all year.

Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley, John Senden, Geoff Ogilvy and Jarrod Lyle are the other Australians in the field.

Jones tees up for the first time since 2012 when he finished T32 in his third appearance since the tournament moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010. He has a missed cut and a T22 in his other two starts.

Bowditch’s victory last year made him the fourth Australian to win the event joining Joe Kirkwood, Bruce Crampton and 2010 winner Adam Scott.

It was an emotional win for the Queenslander who has battled depression for several years and despite struggling to a final round 76 he held on to win by a shot.

Bowditch has been out of form since the win with only one other top 10 in the last 12 months, that coming at the Fry’s.com event last December.

Having missed five straight cuts prior to last week’s Arnold Palmer tournament it was a small victory to play the weekend at Bay Hill and with the good memories from last year to draw on this week might mark the
beginning of a turnaround.

Also looking for a good result this week is Jarrod Lyle who has teed up five times this season in his bid to earn back the TOUR card he lost when diagnosed with a second bout of leukemia in 2012.

Lyle is entitled to 19 starts on the TOUR and needs to earn $283,825 to get his card back. In his five tournaments to date he has amassed $53,795.

Relying on invites for starts it has proved difficult for Lyle to build a consistent schedule and his recent form has reflected that with the 34-year-old missing his last three cuts.

With every dollar vital to Lyle’s chances of playing the TOUR full time again he will be looking to turn that around at San Antonio where he has played twice and made the cut both times.

Of the remaining Australians only Aaron Baddeley has posted a top 10 finish since the tournament moved to San Antonio in 2010, finishing T3 behind Adam Scott that year.