Brett Rumford is “ready to go” as he makes his return five months following surgery on a wrist injury he feared could have ended his career.

Winner of the 2013 Volvo China Open, Rumford had three surgeries on his right wrist in early November and almost immediately after being discharged headed for the gym to begin his rehabilitation.

Aiming to be back playing in March, Rumford regularly posted updates of his progress on Instagram and is now ready to make his return to tournament golf in the CNY20,000,000 ($A4.2m) European Tour event.

He played five holes with fellow Australians Dimi Papadatos and Min Woo Lee at Genzon Golf Club in Shenzhen before rain brought a premature end to their practice round on Tuesday. Although he wasn’t exactly bombing tee shots out past Lee – “No one out-drives Min Woo” – Papadatos said it was great to see Rumford back out on tour again.

“Everyone’s happy to see him here,” Papadatos said.

“He’s keen as, ready to go.

“His game looks good. He said his wrist is still giving him a little bit of trouble but I think he’s just really eager to get back out here again.”

Like many in golf circles, Papadatos has followed Rumford’s progress closely, marvelling at his determination to get back on the golf course at 41 years of age.

“He’s looking fit,” said Papadatos, who was tied for 21st at last week’s Trophee Hassan II tournament in Morocco.

“He’s always just super committed and a really motivated guy in whatever he’s doing.

“He’s been working hard to get his game back after the surgery. I’m sure he’ll be fine once he blows off the cobwebs.”

The return of Rumford takes the tally of Australians in the field for the Volvo China Open to 13 including 2002 champion David Gleeson.

I’m off in the first group in a field full of superstars at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions tournament in China on Thursday and deep down I know I’m not going to be competitive.

For an elite athlete in any sport, that’s the toughest pill to swallow.

Last week at the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama I was 11-over through 11 holes and knew I had to quit.

At the start of the week, I needed to finish in the top three in order to keep my European Tour card so with that hanging over my head, my wrist injury and technically not swinging the club very well it all built up into this crescendo in Spain.

It was the lowest point of my career.

It wasn’t that I was playing completely horribly – Valderrama is a course that can do that to you if your game is not sharp – but I knew I had to preserve my wrist to give me a chance of playing OK this week.

I’ve had wrist issues going back to 2013 when I hurt it hitting balls off a mat. I had my third cortisone injection in my right wrist at the start of the year and a fourth a couple of months ago that didn’t take.

There hasn’t been a round this year where I haven’t played in some kind of pain so given I wasn’t going to make the cut last week my priority had to be to give my wrist two or three days rest before flying to China.

Now that I’m here and getting ready to play I honestly don’t know what to expect.

It’s a tough challenge for me. Not having your mindset in that competitive state and thinking about winning the golf tournament has been the hardest thing for me to come to terms with this year.

I just feel as though my competitor has been a little bit suppressed.

I know within that for me to go out in the right frame of mind, I need to do X, Y and Z. If I can work on my game and prepare the way I know I can prepare to play my best then I give myself the best opportunity of going out and playing my best.

But truth be told, right now I just don’t feel like a competitor, and that’s the hardest thing.

I don’t even feel like a golfer at the moment.

I just feel a little bit removed from the intensity and the mindset of going out there to play and win a golf tournament.

You feel as though you’re something of a third wheel in amongst the machine.

Even your competitors and the guys you hang around with are wary because there’s this mindset that if you’re playing bad – you’ve got the snap-hooks or you’re shooting big numbers – that you’ve got some disease that they don’t want to catch.

Subconsciously you’re being held at arm’s length.

How do I pick myself up? That’s not really something I can do at the moment.

It’s not the first time I’ve experienced this feeling.

After I came back from having 12 inches of my small intestine removed in 2015, being out of the competitive environment for so long made me feel as though I was viewing it from a third-person perspective.

Everything became very visible to me whereas normally I’m very pin-point with my focus. The distractions and other competitors dissipate and disappear amongst the concentration of what you’re trying to do.

I could see the intensity in others that I couldn’t see in myself and that became very, very evident.

It gave me a greater appreciation of how like-minded everyone is out here.

The one thing that I noticed at the elite level is that everyone is singularly minded. They’re going about their business their own way and very selfish about what they are trying to accomplish personally.

It took me a little while to be able to get back into that mindset again. I feel again now that I’ve been a little bit removed from it and that I’m an outsider looking in.

To be honest, I may as well be spectating along the gallery ropes.

I don’t know really what I’m expecting out there tomorrow. I’m just taking it one day at a time, hoping my wrist is manageable and that my game is manageable as well.

Some weeks the course sets up to suit your game and other weeks it doesn’t.

Valderrama is not a course where you can go in under-prepared because the golf course will destroy you. This week is more a resort style course but the rough is actually quite heavy so that’s going to be an issue for me.

At the end of this week, I’ll take three weeks off and play both the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship and then look at getting the surgery I need on my wrist.

I know if I can get healthy I can and can put the work in that my mindset will shift automatically and I’ll become that competitor.

I can’t wait to be that guy again.

Brett Rumford has produced some sterling golf to register his best tournament finish since claiming the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth in 2017.

The popular West Australian finished T5 at the Spanish Open in Madrid courtesy of some excellent golf, scores of 68-66-68-71 seeing him to 15-under for the week and five behind eventual winner Jon Rahm.

A double bogey at his ninth hole of the final round was a rare mistake for Rumford who dropped just six shots for the 72 holes against an impressive 21 birdies.

The result signals a much-needed turnaround for Rumford who hadn’t posted a top-10 result since his win at Lake Karrinyup Country Club last year.

He looked to be back in form when defending that title in February but after a hot start struggled to a third round 78 to miss the match-play portion of the tournament.

Rumford was one of four Australasians to make the cut at the Centro Nacional de Golf, Marcus Fraser, Jason Norris and Jason Scrivener the others.

Fraser finished in a share of 46^th with scores of 71-66-71-72 while Norris, like Rumford, will have some positives to take from a T58 result.

The South Australian has found the going tough since winning the Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways last year and in 2018 had made just two cuts in seven starts prior to this week.

An opening 67 was particularly encouraging and while he followed with rounds of 71-70-74 will have recovered some confidence in his game.

Jason Scrivener battled at the weekend after a solid start and eventually finished 1-under for the week and T73.

Ryan Fox, Nick Cullen, Adam Bland, Josh Geary and Andrew Dodt all missed the cut which came at 3-under after 36 holes.

The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth delivered on its promise of drama as an action packed Saturday afternoon unfolded at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

Defending champion Brett Rumford and Lee Westwood cruised into the third round tied for the lead but the pair found trouble at every turn as they each posted 6-over 78 to tumble down the leaderboard and end their tournaments.

“It was a tiring day, I just didn’t play well…I just didn’t control my golf ball as well as I should have done,” said Rumford.

His playing partner for three days, Westwood added, “Not a lot went my way.  Disappointing, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I think it’s a good format, very exciting. I like it.”

Enjoying a far better day on course, Thai player Prom Meesawat fired 5-under 67 to claim the top seed and a first round bye.

“I’m very happy to finish first, but still a lot of golf for tomorrow and I think it’s going to be good fun,” said Meesawat.

“I’ve got a good chance. In match play, everything can happen. Like last year, the last guy got in and he just knocked out everyone to get to the final.  So you never know.

“I’m going to try to be like Rummy, he finished first and then won the tournament, so that’s my goal.”

Joining Meesawat with a bye through to the second round are the top-8 seeds; Sean Crocker (USA), Lucas Herbert (AUS), Thorbjorn Olesen (DNK), Dimitrios Papadatos (AUS), Brad Kennedy (AUS), Yusaku Miyazato (JPN) and Sam Horsfield (ENG).

While usually the top end of the leaderboard commands all the attention on the Saturday of a golf tournament, at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth the drama unfolded further back as players vied to make the top-24.

At the end of 54  holes nine players were tied at 5-under the card, needing to playoff for the final eight places for Sunday’s match play.

Making par on the first playoff hole, Callan O’Reilly (AUS), Stephen Leaney (AUS), Poom Saksansin (THA), Satoshi Kodaira (JPN), Yi-keun Chang (KOR), Andrea Pavan (ITA) and Zander Lombard (RSA) all advanced.

However Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA) and Anthony Quayle (AUS) both made bogey sending them back to the tee to playoff for the final position.

It took an extra three trips down the 18^th for Aphibarnrat to claim the spot with a par while Quayle made bogey.

The other highlight of the day belonged to West Australian amateur Min Woo Lee who progressed to the match play as the 11^th seed.

To view all 24 players who advanced to the six hole match play portion of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth please visit pga.org.au.

The match play draw will be made available at pga.org.au by 9pm AWST.

Reigning ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth champion Brett Rumford got his title defense off to the perfect start at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

The West Australian was off to a flyer with seven birdies on his front-9, he stumbled with bogeys on the 1^st and 3^rd holes (his 10^th and 12^th) before getting back on track with three more birdies coming home to finish 8-under 64 and hold a two shot lead.

“I’m leading, I’m inside the top-24 and that’s my only focus this week is to finish inside that number whether I lead the qualifying again. That would be a nice bonus but it’s not my priority this week and I’m playing accordingly,” said Rumford who led for all three rounds in last year’s tournament before the match play on Sunday.

“I think some golf courses just fit your eye and others don’t.  It’s not always the case, but generally you find as a trend that a lot of players go back and play well when they’ve had a lot of good performances there, and this (Lake Karrinyup Country Club) is one of them.

“The fairways are nice and generous; it’s just a flowing golf course. A lot of the holes are framed to the eye, it tells you which shot to hit, and I just love that kind of golf.

“The greens are great and I’ve played here a lot.  So I don’t know what it is, but definitely seems to be some kind of home course advantage.”

Rumford played in the same group as Lee Westwood, who finished on 6-under 66 to hold second position early, the pair enjoyed a ding-dong battle throughout their round before Rumford pulled away to lead by two.

The third player in the group, Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston, set the tone with an eagle on the 10^th, their first hole of the day.

“I think Beef threw the first punch with a 2 at our first, the 10th hole, and I guess we just fed off each other from there,” added Rumford.

“Lee was playing great golf, steady like he normally does, and the greens were rolling nicely so if you got the ball on line rolling, if you got it to the hole, there’s no deviation to the greens.  So unfortunately Beef had a bit of trouble on that front-9, which is our back, but outside of that I think we all played pretty steady golf, decent golf, and I think that’s what you need to do around Karrinyup.”

Westwood said he was happy with his strong start to the tournament, albeit with some putts not dropping, and hopes to cement his place inside the top-24 as Sunday approaches.

“6-under is a nice start to the week, I think it’s the kind of format where you don’t really want to be chasing.  If you can get out to a fast start, I think everybody’s just trying to make the top-24 for the final day,” said Westwood.

“I hit a lot of good putts today that just didn’t go in, so I’m just waiting for them to go in.”

Playing in the afternoon, Novocastrian James Nitties made a late charge for the lead reaching 7-under par before finishing 6-under 66 for his share of second place alongside Westwood.

He and the rest of the field playing in the afternoon had to contend with a wind that was proving difficult to read for many.

“It definitely wasn’t the Fremantle Doctor, the toughest thing about it was trying to pick which way the wind was going,” said Nitties.

“It wasn’t that it was gusty or strong, it was just you throw some grass up; it would hit you in the face and the next it would go downwind.  So I think that was the difficult part.”

Nitties came home with a wet sail with a bogey on his second last hole but made an impressive par save on the 9^th, his last hole.

“I never take driver over the last there, I was feeling good and things were kind of going my way, so I hit it out the left side in between the huge ‘devil trees’ I like to call them,” added Nitties.

“It was one of those shots where I had to take a backswing and know that I was going to get contact, and in that case sometimes you just don’t want to top it or whiff it and I just went down real hard after it, and yeah, it came up 20 metres short of the green and that is dead right there.

“So I hit it to 12 feet, made a good putt, I definitely didn’t want to finish bogey‑bogey, so a good par at the last sort of makes dinner taste a little better.”

Sitting one shot behind Westwood and Nitties is a group of nine players including; Jason Scrivener (AUS), Sebastien Gros (FRA), Prom Meesawat (THA), Daisuke Kataoka (KOR), Nicholas Fung (THA), Wade Ormsby (AUS), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA), Yi-keun Chang (KOR) and Gareth Paddison (NZL).

Round two begins at 6:40am local time with leader Brett Rumford teeing off the 1^st at 12:00pm.

For round one scores, visit pga.org.au.

For round two tee times, visit pga.org.au.

Brett Rumford was the lone Australian to make the cut in a rusty start to the European Tour’s 2018 season at the BMW South African Open.

The West Australian was one of three Australasians to make the journey to Glendower Golf Club but the only one to qualify for the weekend.

Jason Scrivener and New Zealand’s Josh Geary were also in the field but both struggled in the opening rounds to miss the cut by four shots.

Rumford, who made a promising start at this event last year, before being forced to withdraw with a stomach bug after 36 holes, played steady golf Thursday and Friday for a pair of 1-under 71s to be two inside the cut line.

However, he struggled at the weekend with rounds of 75-78 and fell down the standings to eventually finish 74^th.

It was also tough going for Geary and Scrivener, the latter somewhat surprising after two good performances at the course in previous years.

Scrivener placed T11 and T12 at his previous appearances in the tournament but there was little of that form on display as he battled to rounds of 74-76.

While he will be disappointed with that effort, the 28-year-old will rightly be optimistic about the year ahead after claiming his first Professional win at the NSW Open last November.

Josh Geary will also be less than pleased with his start to the year after earning his card at Q-School in late 2017.

With playing opportunities limited for those graduating from the annual school, the 33-year-old knows he needs to post good results early if he is to maintain his card for next year.

Brett Rumford is aiming to defend his ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth title from the British as Danny Willett becomes latest Englishman to sign onto the tournament.

To be played from 8-11 February, Rumford will be a crowd favourite at Lake Karrinyup Country Club after his fairytale victory earlier this year.

“The West Australian crowds are always incredibly passionate and the support they have shown me throughout my entire career has been amazing,” said Rumford.

“I have wanted to win a big title at home for a long time, to get across the line at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth this year was very special to me.

“The format is definitely interesting and it’s nice to hold a little slice of golf history as the inaugural champion. I am really looking forward to defending my title next year.”

Standing in his way will be a strong contingent of Englishmen with 2016 Masters Champion Danny Willett confirming he will join World Number 16 Tyrrell Hatton and former World Number 1 Lee Westwood.

“I can’t wait to come back to Perth for the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth. I have competed in tournaments at Lake Karrinyup before and the course is always great fun to play,” said Willett.

“I am also looking forward to playing the stroke play / match play hybrid, I think these non-traditional formats are interesting to break up the regular 72 hole stroke play.”

The addition of Rumford and Willett is a great boost to the field with the tournament set to capture the attention of the world.

Western Australian Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the State Government was a proud sponsor of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth.

“The format created a lot of interest last year, generating a global broadcast value of more than $20 million in Western Australia’s top-10 tourism markets,” Mr Papalia said.

“This provides fantastic exposure of Perth’s recent significant transformation to potential visitors around the world, helping drive visitation.

"The event also provides a boost to the economy through players, support teams and spectators visiting Perth for the tournament."

A great supporter of golf around the world and advocate of promoting golf as an inclusive sport, Dr Haruhisa Handa of ISPS HANDA is pleased to see some of the best players of the world supporting the tournament.

“Following on from the recent announcement of Lee Westwood and Tyrell Hatton, we are delighted to hear that defending champion Brett Rumford and Englishman Danny Willett have also confirmed their entries into the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth,” said Dr Handa.

“Our support of the tournament is in aid of promoting golf as an inclusive sport and showcasing the incredible power which sport can harness.

“We hope to see many of the players take part in communicating these important messages through some of the exciting activations we have planned with the PGA of Australia.”

Assembling a world class field for the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth has been a focus for tournament organisers who are delighted to welcome Rumford and Willett to the tournament.

“We have created a unique event with a thrilling format at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth and we are delighted that it is attracting players the calibre of Brett (Rumford), Danny (Willett), Tyrrell (Hatton) and Lee (Westwood),” said Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the PGA of Australia which oversees the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.

“We are sure that the 2018 edition will be another success with fans able to watch this world class field for just $25.”

The PGA of Australia is pleased to announce fan friendly ticket pricing for the event. 

For just a $25* general admission fans can watch Tyrrell Hatton and Lee Westwood in action in the innovative ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth. While children aged 16 years and under enter free of charge.

Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.com.au.

Corporate hospitality options are available including the popular West Cape Howe Wines Terrace and BDO Super Suite.

The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth event is proudly supported by the Western Australian Government through Tourism WA.