He is the runaway leader of the Australasian Order of Merit and currently sits 15th on the Asian Tour moneylist but Queensland’s Daniel Nisbet is yet to take his best golf with him to Asia in 2018.

The Asian Tour resumes this week in Korea with The 34th Shinhan Donghae Open at the Bear’s Best Cheongna Golf Club where Nisbet leads a contingent of 13 Australasian players.

Winner of the Northern Territory PGA Championship last month, Nisbet owes his high position on the Asian Tour Order of Merit to his win at the co-sanctioned New Zealand Open in February.

Due to celebrate his 28th birthday on Thursday, Nisbet has been unable to transfer his stellar play in Australia and New Zealand to the Asian-based tournaments, making just the one cut, a tie for 60th at the Thailand Open.

He has played tournaments in Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand without making it through to the weekend but now has a run of tournaments in which he can further improve his standing on the Order of Merit.

Fresh off his win on the PGA Tour-China last week New Zealand rookie Nick Voke has accepted a sponsor’s invitation to play in Korea as has outstanding Aussie amateur Min Woo Lee.

Fresh off leading the Aussie charge at the Eisenhower Trophy in Ireland, Lee will tee it up alongside the professionals for the sixth time this year, his best result to date a tie for fifth at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth in his home town of Perth.

Runner up to Nisbet at the New Zealand Open, Terry Pilkadaris has also struggled in Asia this year but in 25th position on the Order of Merit and coming in on the back of a top 20 finish at the Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways will be keen to channel some positivity in Korea.

Korean PGA Tour regular Junseok Lee earns an Asian Tour start this week courtesy of a Korean PGA exemption, the only non-Korean player of the 49 players to receive the exemption.

Other Aussies in the field this week are Todd Sinnott, Jake Higginbottom, Andrew Martin, Jarryd Felton, Travis Smyth and Steven Jeffress along with Kiwis Voke, Ben Campbell and Woonchul Na.

The earthquake that has devastated areas of Sapporo has forced the cancellation of the Japan Golf Tour’s ANA Open that was due to be played last week.

With Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport closed, Japan Tour players were told via e-mail last Saturday that the tournament would not go ahead, 130 canceled All Nippon Airways flights affecting some 24,000 passengers.

The Japan Golf Tour will resume in Saitama next week for the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup Golf tournament at the Musashi Country Club.