Nationwide Tour gets set for round two Down Under

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With the completion of the HSBC New Zealand Championship Sunday, the Nationwide Tour heads to Australia this week for the inaugural Moonah Classic to be played at Moonah Links Golf Club on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

Moonah Links Golf Course (Pierse/Getty Images)

The Moonah Classic is a PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit event and is the fourth event on the 2008 US Nationwide Tour calendar following the season opening Movistar Panama Championship in Panama, the Mexico Open and the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship.

The field at the Moonah Classic includes the three winners on the Nationwide Tour Money List so far. American Scott Dunlap who won the season opening Panama Movistar Championship, Australian Jarrod Lyle who won the Mexico Open by five shots and the winner of the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship American Darron Stiles.

The $750,000 Nationwide Tour co-sanctioned event will feature 17 of the Top 20 on the Final 2007 Australasian Tour Money List and boasts a crop of young guns including 2007 MFS Australian Open runner up Won Joon Lee, 2007 Von Nida Tour Money List winner Andrew Bonhomme, 2007 Qualifying School Champion Bronson La Cassie and 20 Von Nida Tour winners including Scott Draper, Rick Kulacz, Marc Leishman, Adam Bland, Kurt Barnes, Kim Felton and Ashley Hall.

Australasian Tour Money Leader New Zealand's David Smail is traveling to Moonah on the back of a second-place result in Christchurch yesterday. The event will also feature proven stars Peter O'Malley, Steven Bowditch, Paul Gow, Paul Sheehan and Greg Chalmers who have all won on the Nationwide and Australasian Tours.

The talented group will be part of a 156-player field of Australasian and US players looking to follow in the footsteps of contemporaries Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Wayne Grady and Mark Hensby who all graduated to the PGA TOUR through the ranks of the Nationwide Tour and enjoyed success on the biggest tour in the world.

Moonah Links has played host to both the 2003 and 2005 Men's Australian Open Golf Championship and will once again take center stage as it hosts the event co-sanctioned by the Australasian and Nationwide Tours.