Western Australia’s Curtis Luck will make his much anticipated Professional debut when he tees up at this week’s Valero Texas Open on the PGA TOUR.

The 20-year-old former World Number 1 amateur made the cut at the Masters a fortnight ago in his last appearance before joining the Professional ranks and has accepted a sponsor’s invitation to play this week at the TPC San Antonio Course.

Luck, believed by many to be one of Australia’s best prospects, is allowed seven sponsor’s invitations as a non-member of the PGA TOUR and by accepting his first this week foregoes guaranteed starts at both the Open Championship and US Open.

As the reigning US Amateur champion Luck was entitled to a place in both fields but would have had to remain an amateur to do so.

“I’m grateful to Valero and the Tournament Committee for inviting me to compete in this year’s Valero Texas Open,” Luck said in a statement on the tournament’s website.

“To begin my professional career at such a historic tournament will be an honour and I know it will be a great launching pad for future success.”

Luck is one of 10 Australians in this week’s field at a tournament which has seen four Australian winners since its inception in 1922.

Joe Kirkwood was the first to lift the trophy in 1924 followed by Bruce Crampton in 1964, Adam Scott and Steven Bowditch also winning in 2010 and 2014 respectively.

Bowditch is among the starters in this week’s field and while he missed the cut at last week’s RBC Heritage showed some signs of improved play with scores of 71-72.

Aaron Baddeley, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Chalmers, Matt Jones, Cameron Percy, John Senden, Brett Drewitt and Cameron Smith make up the rest of the Australian contingent.

Smith plays the tournament for the first time after another week of seeming close to producing a good week at the RBC Heritage.

His opening 67 had him just outside the top-10 through 18 holes but he couldn’t maintain the momentum over the next three days and slipped to T29 on the leaderboard.

In need of a good showing this week is Matt Jones who continues his attempt to get back full PGA TOUR playing rights after losing his card last year.

Jones plays for just the eighth time this season, his last start coming in Houston three weeks ago where he finished T49.

While Jones is trying to make his way back to the TOUR Brett Drewitt need some good finishes to ensure he retains his status for next year.

After a solid start to the wraparound season Drewitt has found the going tough with as many missed cuts as he has made.

Aaron Baddeley has the best finish at the tournament outside of Bowditch’s 2014 win, the Victorian finished T3 in 2010 the first year the tournament moved to this venue.

His missed cut at Harbour Town last week was somewhat a surprise and given he has never missed the weekend at TPC San Antonio he will be expecting better this week.