Late yesterday afternoon five Australasians (including Mike Hendry above) who had been involved at the Final Stage of Qualifying for the Japan Golf Tour were advised that their Jetstar flight out of Osaka would be delayed by three hours due to a mechanical issue with the plane.

No big deal you might say, after all that is occasionally the nature of the best when travelling the golf circuits of the world.

The only problem for these five players however was that had a connecting flight out of the Gold Coast at 9.00am in order to get themselves to Sydney in order that they could tee it up in the afternoon field for today's opening round of the Emirates Australian Open.

Those players were Ryan Haller, Adam Bland, Aaron Townsend, Paul Spargo and New Zealander Mike Hendry who had just experienced varying degrees of success the previous day at the Final Stage of Qualifying for the 2013 Japan Golf Tour.

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Haller and Hendry both earned what is essentially full status for Japan in 2013 while the others will only gain starts when the opportunity arises.

New Zealander Hendry's wife just happens to be a travel agent and she set about co-ordinating a small jet out of Coolangatta Airport which arrived in Sydney just after 12.30 pm allowing all four to get to the their respective first tees in time.

That was the good news but for one or two others who were hoping to get a place in the field in their absence the news wasn't quite so good.

Queenslander Henry Epstein was one of those and when advised of the situation he was in Brisbane. He jumped on a plane himself hoping to get one of the places that appeared to be on offer as a result of the adventures of the group of five.

It was not to be and as Haller teed off at 1.25 Epstein could only rue his misfortune.