After the long winter break the Southern Swing of the Choice hotels PGA Pro-Am Series will get underway in Victoria’s northwest next week, with a number of familiar faces in action.

Monday sees the third staging of the WIN TV Mallee Regional Pro-Am at Mildura Golf Resort.  Last year’s winner Adam Burdett has returned to defend his crown over the best quality field the event has seen in its short history.

Players then move on to Swan Hill and the Murray Downs Golf Club, arguably the best course in the Murray region.  After a relaxing 4BBB event on the Tuesday the action heats up on Wednesday with a 50 strong Professional field teeing it up for the Murray Downs Pro-Am.

The week has been part of the Southern Swing for many years now and is showing its popularity amongst the players with all events seeing very strong entries and an increase on recent years.

"We are very pleased with the entries for the week.  All events have a great mixture of club, teaching and touring Professionals, including tour winners and household names," said Cameron Davies, PGA Tournament Coordinator.

Players will be tested as they move on to Thursday and the Stuart Appleby Cohuna Pro-Am.  Tight tree lined fairways make scoring extremely difficult with accuracy from the tee a premium.  Defending champion and former PGA TOUR Professional Euan Walters is looking to make it back-to-back wins.

The final event of the week sees the 59th staging of the 36 hole Border Open at Barham Golf Club, the longest running two day pro-am in the country.  With $25,000 prize money up for grabs, it’s the showcase event of the week. 

The event has become a favourite stop amongst the Professionals and many amateur visitors who flock to the town for the weekend.

Recently crowned Queensland Open Champion David Bransdon, PGA TOUR Professional and Australian golfing favourite, Jarrod Lyle, together with current Southern Order of Merit leader Luke Hickman are among entries for the week.

With the end of the 2015 Choice Hotels PGA Pro-Am Series Southern Order of Merit in sight, the race to secure the Peter Thomson Trophy is wide open, Hickman leads past champion Euan Walters by just over two thousand dollars with only a hand full of events to go.