The co-sanctioned Malaysian Open this week represents a huge opportunity for several Australians who ply their trade on the Asian Tour with the chance to emulate Scott Hend and earn a card to the European Tour.

Hend was a member of the Asian Tour when he won last year’s co-sanctioned Honk Kong Open to earn his way to Europe and 10 of the 14 Australians in this year’s field are in the same position.

Marcus Both, Nathan Holman, Terry Pilkadaris, Jake Higginbottom, Sam Brazel, Kalem Richardson, Adam Groom, Kieran Pratt, Scott Barr and Unho Park are all Asian Tour members who have the chance to step up with a victory this week.

Hend, who finished T11 here in 2012, also takes his place in the field with fellow European Tour members Andrew Dodt, Wade Ormsby and Marcus Fraser.

The Malaysian Open is Dodt’s first start since earning his card at Q-School last year though he has played the event several times as an Asian Tour member with limited success.

Dodt has a best finish of T33 which came last year though neither Marcus Fraser nor Wade Ormsby have fared much better in multiple appearances.

Ormsby has struggled to finish off decent starts each of the last two weeks with over par final rounds relegating him well down the leader board but he will be looking to reverse that trend this week at a course where he has a best round of 65.

Fraser has a best finish of T12 in 11 starts at the event though that didn’t come at this week’s venue, the Kuala Lumpur Golf Club, where his best result is T18.