Fresh off a big accolade of his own, Jack Buchanan is looking to his great mate Harrison Crowe for inspiration at the Nomura Cup at Manila Southwoods Golf & Country Club in the Philippines this week.

Buchanan, who was awarded the Golf Australia Order of Merit for a second straight year last month, watched on as Crowe booked his ticket to The Masters and The Open with victory at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship more than two weeks ago, and now the South Australian, Jye Pickin and Quinnton Croker have the chance to capture the Asia-Pacific spotlight for themselves.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Crowey overseas this year and sometimes you don’t feel like your game is too far apart from his,” Buchanan said. 

“So if he can do it, there’s really no reason why one of us can’t step up and perform well too.”

The Nomura Cup, also known as the Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Team Championship, is back on the international amateur golf calendar for the first time since 2017 after postponements due to the 2019 Hong Kong protests and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australia is the most prolific nation in the event’s history with ten wins - one ahead of Japan - and those victories have been a crucial stepping stone for many of our country’s finest golfers including Open champion Cameron Smith (2011) and Presidents Cup star Cameron Davis (2013) in recent times. 

That rich history is not lost on the current crop.

“We’ve obviously got big shoes to fill but they are great footsteps to follow in,” Pickin said. 

“A few of the guys I’ve played a little bit with like Andrew Dodt have won this tournament before and that’s something to look up to and inspire us for the week.”

None of the Australian trio are unfamiliar with international competition and that is set to hold them in good stead this week.

New South Welshman Pickin spent the northern hemisphere summer competing in the United States, as did Buchanan after earlier ventures to the United Kingdom and Europe.

Queenslander Croker has already taken a liking to Asian golf however, with a wire-to-wire victory in May at the inaugural LLD International Amateur Championship in Singapore.

The 72-hole tournament involves the two best scores from each team counting each day, and the Australians will be under the guidance of the current Queensland scholarship coach Ji McBryde who is acting as both team manager and coach.

Play begins on Tuesday 15 November and you can follow the scores here.

Round 1 tee times AEDT

12.03pm Quinnton Croker, Singh Yuvraj (India), Chung-Hung Su (Chinese Taipei)

12.14pm Jye Pickin, Nikhil Chopra Krishnav (India), Chao-Hsin Hung (Chinese Taipei)

12.25pm Jack Buchanan, Bhattacharya Shaurya (India), Sun-Yi Lu (Chinese Taipei)