Queensland based Anthony Quayle returns to the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia this week after securing playing rights on the difficult Japan Golf Tour in just his first season overseas.

In only his second year as a professional, 24-year-old Quayle was able to secure his playing rights in Japan earlier this year and now heads back Down Under to play in the summer of golf in Australia beginning at the AVJennings NSW Open 8-11 November at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club.

“It was a lot of fun and a massive learning curve; it was pretty cool to get up there and play some quality fields in some pretty big events,” said Quayle whose best result in Japan was a tie for second place at The Crowns.

“It was cool to play with a lot of the Aussie guys that I’ve looked up to from my junior days, having dinner with them and watching them play and then competing with them has been great.”

While playing on one of the world’s richest professional tours may be daunting, life outside the ropes is just as tough. When you don’t speak the language the simplest of tasks become just that extra bit difficult.

“In some ways that’s probably the toughest part of a rookie year up there, just trying to adapt to how their culture works and how they go about different things.

“Everything’s obviously in a different language and they’re trying more and more to cater for English speaking players but compared to what I’m used to it’s really tough.

“All the guys up there really helped me out Brendan Jones, Matt Griffin, Michael Hendry, all of those guys have been great.

“I just tried to listen to them and back myself that my good stuff would allow me to compete there and it worked out this year.”

Now with the best part of a full season in Japan under his belt, Quayle will return to his home tour armed with the experience and knowledge to focus purely on golf and capturing his first professional title.

“I feel that going up there next year now knowing how the tour works and knowing the courses, they’re very unique courses, it’s going to be a massive advantage on my rookie year,” added Quayle.

“I think all in all it’s been a pretty successful year and I’m looking to try and cap off a good year and make it a great year in these next few weeks.”

What would make his second season as a professional great would be capturing the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit title.

Following a tied third result at the Vic Open and runner-up finish at the Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways, Quayle sits second in the money race, some $28,000 behind leader Daniel Nisbet.

It’s what has brought Quayle back home to Australia for the summer, that and the comforts of home as well as the chance to play in front of friends and family.

It means he’ll miss out on competing in a run of tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour totaling well over AU $10,000,000. But the chance to play his home Open again and chase the Order of Merit title was too great.

“There’s obviously a chance to play for a bit of money up there at the moment then also try and further my status for next year. I had a couple of options, I could come back home and try to win the Order of Merit and like I said, turn a good year into a great year so I ended up going down that route,” added Quayle.

“Last year I played the Australian Open and was contending for most of the week. It was a really cool experience playing in your national Open with all the fans and how welcomed I was by everybody so it was something I didn’t want to miss this year, I wanted to be back and supporting Australian golf.

“I’m definitely looking to try and play well these next few weeks and see if I can win that Order of Merit.”

Of course, should Quayle be successful in winning the Order of Merit he’ll receive full status on the European Tour, an invite to The Open as well as invites into World Golf Championship events.

“It’s a good problem to have, picking between full status on the Japan Tour or a full season on the European Tour but I think I would probably lean more towards Europe and throw myself into the deep end again to learn pretty quickly.

“Eventually that’s where I want to be in Europe and the U.S. playing Majors and WGC’s and winning the Order of Merit is a pretty straightforward way to start doing those things, but it’s certainly tough to win.”

Anthony Quayle tees off for round one at 12.15pm tomorrow with Jake McLeod and New Zealand amateur Daniel Hillier.

The AVJennings NSW Open will be played at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club from 8 – 11 November.

In addition to the winner’s share of the $400,000 prize purse, the champion will receive Official World Golf Ranking Points and be fully exempt onto the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia until the end of the 2020 season.

Anthony Quayle remains on track to retain his card on the Japan Golf Tour following a roller-coaster finish to his final round of the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup at the Musashi Country Club in Saitama.

Co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour, the time-honoured Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup provided the opportunity for Aussies to make a move on two separate moneylists with Quayle and Travis Smyth the best performers in a tie for 21st.

In his maiden season in Japan Quayle now sits 37th on the moneylist and experienced all the highs and lows golf can throw at you in his final four holes of the tournament.

After making the turn in 1-under 34, Quayle added a further birdie at the par-5 11th but dropped a shot after failing to get up and down at the par-4 15th.

A birdie at the par-3 16th got him back to 2-under on his round and then a hole-out eagle at the par-5 17th had him on track to record just his third top-20 finish of the year.

The Queenslander unfortunately missed the green with his approach to the par-4 18th and again failed to save par, signing for a 3-under 68 that was one of the best of the day.

Playing in Japan for the first time thanks to his top-10 finish on the Asian Tour the week prior, Smyth opened with a 69 to be tied for 22nd after the first round but needed three straight birdies in his second round to qualify for the weekend.

In a tough week for scoring Smyth compiled matching 1-under rounds of 70 on Saturday and Sunday to move up to a tie for 21st and up to 44th on the Asian Tour order of merit.

Brad Kennedy continues to hold his place inside the top 10 of the Japan Golf Tour moneylist as a final round of 69 saw him finish tied for 26th with Matthew Griffin also recording his best round for the week on Sunday to be tied for 48th.

Queensland amateur Shae Wools-Cobb underlined his enormous potential with a final round of 1-under 70 to close out his week among the professionals in a tie for 45th, the equal-best finish of the 14 amateurs invited to take part.

ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit leader Daniel Nisbet withdrew following round one with back issues and will subsequently miss next week’s Taiwan Masters.

Anthony Quayle has wasted no time making his presence felt on the Japan Tour with a second-place finish at the prestigious Crowns tournament in just his third start.

Having earned his card at the Q-School late last year, the 23-year-old is already inside the top-15 on the Order of Merit and all but assured of a place on the circuit again in 2019.

One of the revelations of the Australian summer of golf, Quayle has made two of three cuts to start his Japan Tour career and seemed unfazed by a fast start which saw him share the lead after an opening round of 65.

He backed that up with a brilliant 67 to be in a share of second place heading to the weekend but struggled on Saturday with a 2-over 72 to slip outside the top-10.

Starting the final round six shots off the pace he produced an impressive a 3-under 67 to finish four behind eventual winner Y.E Yang.

While Quayle will take good memories from Nagoya Country Club, Matt Griffin continued a blossoming relationship with the course and tournament with his second top-10 in three years.

Griffin’s best Japan Tour result came at this event two years ago with a T5 finish and after adding a T6 this week he will be looking forward to the 2019 event already.

He was a model of consistency all week with scores of 69-67-69-69 and will take plenty of confidence into the rest of the season.

Former winner Brendan Jones finished T10 but will be disappointed with a final round 73 that dropped him seven places down the leaderboard.

Jones was sharing second alongside Quayle through 36 holes after opening with 66-67 but couldn’t quite maintain the momentum over the closing two rounds.

David Bransdon was next best of the Australasians at 2-under and T23 while Michael Hendry finished a shot further back and T28.

Scott Strange (60^th) and Brad Kennedy (T61) were the last of the Australasians to qualify for the weekend, Won Joon Lee the only one to miss the cut.

Anthony Quayle is teetering on the edge of a breakthrough victory as he tees it up in the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

Turning professional at the end of 2016, Quayle spent last year competing on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia after earning his card at Qualifying School.

It was a solid rookie year for Quayle who played 11 tournaments making 10 cuts, recording three top-10 results and finishing 28^th on the Order of Merit.

Continuing his steady career progression, Quayle earned his Japan Tour card after finishing fourth at Qualifying School in December.

“Something my team and I have done really well is our progression from when I was a young amateur even where we are now, it’s continued,” said Quayle.

“Obviously you have ebbs and flows but it’s continued to improve each year and I continue to I guess compete at a higher level each time as well.

“Getting a card on an international tour then coming back and playing some ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia events you sort of go into it feeling like one of the name players I guess rather than the rookie out there.

“There’s a few guys that are doing it. Lucas (Herbert) has just got his card in China as well as a lot of other good young guys that are getting their cards overseas, so we all kind of push each other I guess.”

Enjoying a strong start to his 2018 season, Quayle arrives in Queenstown in top form. He put himself in a good position at the Oates Vic Open before finishing third, missed qualifying for the match play at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth in a four hole playoff to eventual champion Kiradech Aphibarnrat and was in contention late on Sunday at the Horizon Golf NZ PGA Championship.

“I guess I would have liked it (a win) to happen sooner. I have put myself there a few times now but I think putting myself in that position as regularly as I have been is only a good sign,” said Quayle.

“I don’t think it adds pressure. I think it actually relieves that by giving me more confidence, which in turn makes handling the pressure a little bit easier because I back myself a little bit more.

“So I’ve got incrementally closer to winning each time I put myself in contention so I have to just keep doing it until I work out how to get it done.”

Playing in the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open for a second time, Quayle feels more prepared to contend for the title this year.

“Last year this was my first tier one event I’d ever played, it was the biggest purse I’d ever played for and for me it was sort of like a bit of a wow, I’m just going to enjoy everything this week.

“This year I feel like if I bring somewhere near my best I can be competitive to win rather than just here for the ride,” added Quayle who finished tied 15^th in 2017.

“I did play well here last year and it was after the New Zealand PGA which I also played pretty well at. To go from sort of being in contention and burning up a bit of energy to having to learn two courses and playing made it a pretty long couple of weeks.

“Whereas this time, I know the courses, I can go out there and kind of just play pretty casually, I don’t have to study too much and not be too intense or too worried during the practice rounds. So it puts me in a bit better shape going into the week.”

The ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open has been a happy hunting ground for young Australian players with three of the last five winners being Aussie first time winners.

Jake Higginbottom won as an amateur in 2012, Dimitrios Papadatos in 2014 and Jordan Zunic in 2015. Quayle hopes to be the next player to engrave his name on the Brodie Breeze trophy and will tee off his campaign at Millbrook Resort at 12.44pm on Thursday playing alongside two time Japan Tour winner Shunsuke Sonoda.

For all round 1 tee times please visit pga.org.au.

Tickets to the tournament can be purchased via Ticketek or on the gate with children under the age of 18 admitted free.