It will be a determined Matt Jones who
takes to the first tee at this week’s RSM Classic as he gives up the rare
chance to defend his national Emirates Australian Open title in a bid to earn
back PGA TOUR status.

Jones finished 126^th on the
FedEx Cup list at the end of the 2016 season meaning he lost his full card and
needs to make the most of every playing opportunity to try to earn it back.

Jones informed Australian Open organisers
in recent weeks that he had made the difficult decision to tee up in Georgia
instead of Rose Bay this week in the long-term interests of his career.
That decision will have stung and Jones will be even more determined to make
the most of this week’s outing as he most probably watches the scores from
Royal Sydney with interest.
With the Australian summer of golf getting underway in earnest in Sydney just
five Australians are in the field for the RSM tournament.

Rookie Brett Drewitt makes his third start
since graduating for the Web.com Tour and will want to improve on a missed cut
in his last outing at the Sanderson Farms tournament.

His debut was a good one, finishing T35 at
the season opening Safeway Open, and he will want to build on that performance
with an exemption category reshuffle looming after this week’s event.

Drewitt is currently listed at 30^th
in the exemption listings but the further up the list he can go the more
tournament starts he will gain for the year.

Cameron Percy is in a similar position to
Drewitt but even further down the list at 45, with some decent form at the RSM
he will be banking on a good week.

An opening round 67 on his way to a T33
finish last year will give Percy some encouragement as he too tries to play his
way back to full PGA TOUR status.

Stuart Appleby and Steven Bowditch round
out the Australian challenge with Appleby coming off a difficult year playing
on a major medical exemption while Bowditch is seeking to regain the form which
took him to two PGA TOUR victories in the past three years.