Quayle aims to punch US ticket with win at For The Players by The Players

Australia's Anthony Quayle will be out to make a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the US PGA Tour's ZOZO Championship when he competes in the inaugural For The Players by The Players which gets underway in Gunma on Thursday.

The 28-year-old still has a mathematical chance to get into the 78-man field at the Accordia Golf Narashino Golf Club next week, but he needs nothing less than victory at THE RAYSUM this Sunday to seal the deal.

The leading eight players on the season-long JGTO Money Rankings will punch their tickets to the US$11,000,000 showpiece and Quayle is currently placed 12th with a season tally of ¥42,429,068.

Of the 11 players above him, current number one Kazuki Higa has already qualified by being the winner of the BMW JGT Championship Mori Building Cup while 11th-placed Mikumu Horikawa booked his spot via sponsor's invitation.

This means the only avenue for Quayle to make the cut is by overtaking Aguri Iwasaki (¥50,025,977) in the ninth spot. There will be no movement from Iwasaki as he is absent this week.

It's still nonetheless a tall order considering the winner's share for this week's event is ¥10,000,000.

However, Quayle is game for the challenge.

"Yes, I will have to win and probably get a little bit lucky as well," he said.

"My game feels really good and this golf course looks like it's setting up for me nicely."

Making its debut, For The Players by The Players is set to thrill both players and fans alike as it will be contested over an unconventional Stableford scoring format.

Under this format, instead of striving for the lowest number of strokes, players earn points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole instead.

Scoring at this week's event will look like this:

Albatross: 8 points

Eagle: 5 points

Birdie: 2 points

Par: 0 points

Bogey: -1 points

Double bogey or worse: -3 points

Quayle, who is ranked fourth for hitting most birdies on Tour, believes this format will bring out the best in him.

"It's going to be an interesting week. I have never played this format before," said Quayle.

"I'm still learning and in fact, I did spend a little bit of time over the last few days to figure out my strategy.

"It looks like this format is going to favour a lot more aggressive golf, which means I probably have to take driver a little bit more often than I normally might in a tournament.

"You can't get any worse than a double bogey. Obviously, you don't want to make a double bogey, but it's not the end of the world if you do."