Recent weeks have seen Geoff Ogilvy closer to his best than at any time this season and that will have him keen to get to the first tee at this week’s Wells Fargo tournament, site of his only top-10 in 2015.

The Quail Hollow course seems to bring out the best in the 2006 US Open champion, who has teed up 11 times in the tournament and never missed the cut.

His T7 finish last year was his career best but after an encouraging 5-under round to start last week’s Zurich Classic, form suggests Ogilvy might be hopeful of an even better result in 2016.

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The former Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open champion has been mired in a slump for much of 2016 but has shown good signs in recent weeks.

While not finishing as high up the leaderboard as he would like, his results since the Houston Open have been a vast improvement on eight missed cuts in his first nine starts of the season.

On a familiar course where he has played well previously, there’s every chance Ogilvy will find the elusive ‘click’ top players talk about at Quail Hollow this week and kick-start the rest of his 2016 campaign.

At 191st on the FedEx Cup standings, Ogilvy is in danger of not retaining his playing rights for 2017 and a good result this week would go a long way towards correcting that.

Also looking to build on some recent good form is Stuart Appleby who is battling to get back his playing status on a major medical extension.
Appleby, who underwent back surgery last February, comes to Quail Hollow off the back of consecutive good weeks on the Tour.

He was T11 at last week’s rain shortened Zurich Classic and T21 at the Valero Texas Open the week before but will need to be at his best on a course that, historically, has not been to his liking.

In 12 appearances at the Wells Fargo, Appleby has missed the weekend seven times, withdrawn another and has a best finish of T15 more than a decade ago, in 2004.

However, with just eight events left on his medical extension and still needing more than $250,000 to secure privileges, he has plenty of incentive to keep his recent good run going.

Matt Jones, Steven Bowditch, Cameron Smith, John Senden and Adam Scott join Ogilvy and Appleby in the field this week.

Scott, the FedEx Cup leader, will start as a favourite at one of the strongest fields of the year though, like Appleby, hasn’t generally found Quail Hollow a happy hunting ground.

He has missed the cut in each of the last three years though given his form so far in 2016 it seems unlikely that will become four in a row.

Scott hasn’t teed up since his T42 finish at the Masters last month and will be looking to find form quickly with the upcoming tight major schedule caused by the Olympics.

Also teeing up for the first time since Augusta is rookie Cameron Smith, who might surprise this week on a course that should suit his game.

Smith tends to shine on layouts where par is well earned and Quail Hollow, particularly the closing stretch, is undoubtedly that.

After a shaky start to his PGA TOUR career Smith has steadied in recent outings with no missed cuts in his last six tournaments.

Fellow Queenslander John Senden makes his first appearance at the Wells Fargo since 2013 and, like Ogilvy, in need of a turnaround in form.

Coming off a T20 finish at the Zurich Classic Senden will be looking to match or better his previous Quail Hollow finish of T10.

The remaining Australians in the field, Matt Jones, Steven Bowditch and Robert Allenby, have a combined best finish of 4th though that came from Allenby in 2004.

All three are struggling in 2016 and a difficult golf course featuring a strong field will present a test for all three.

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