![Charlestown professional Jake Higginbottom will tee up in the Australian PGA Championships at Royal Queensland Golf Course, starting Thursday. Picture by Peter Lorimer Charlestown professional Jake Higginbottom will tee up in the Australian PGA Championships at Royal Queensland Golf Course, starting Thursday. Picture by Peter Lorimer](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/AVQVfAtGgzehhK8J9F6uCU/d3446685-e60e-4860-8b48-37167c4a362f.JPG/r0_207_3000_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
CHARLESTOWN professional Jake Higginbottom hopes that a new focus and a catch up with long-term friend and British Open champion Cameron Smith will help invigorate his career.
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Higginbottom will line up against Smith and fellow headline acts Adam Scott, Marc Leishman and Cameron Davis in the $2million Australian PGA Championships at Royal Queensland, starting Thursday.
After the PGA, the 29-year-old had planned to head to Jakarta for the final event on the Asian Tour, the $2.2m Indonesian Masters.
Instead, he will stay home and play in the $1.7m Australian Open at Kingston Heath. The Aussie PGA and Open are co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.
The decision, means Higginbottom will forfeit any chance of retaining tour status in Asia, his base for eight of the past nine years. The right-hander is 117th on the Order of Merit and would need a top-five finish to move into the top 70.
"I am going to play the Australia Open now," Higginbottom said. "Just the grind of the Asian Tour. I have done it for a long time. Maybe it might be time to look somewhere else."
It has been a frustrating month for Higginbottom.
At the $2.2m International Series Morocco, he carded rounds of 79,72 to miss the cut by a stroke. It was the same scenario a week later at the $2.2m International Series Egypt where he had rounds of 72,69 to miss the cut by a shot.
"When you are probably not playing your best, for some reason, you tend to get a lot of bad breaks," Higginbottom said. "When you are playing well, everything seems to go your way.
"In Morocco I had a poor first round. It was a long way to fight back, but I played well the second day in tough conditions and missed the cut by one.
"In Egypt, I played OK, but didn't hole many putts.
"Everything feels good leading into a tournament. Once you get out there, every now and then, it is not so good."
Higginbottom has spent the past week in Brisbane working with his coach Grant Field, who also mentors Smith. Higginbottom and Smith are the same age and came through juniors together.
"I did a bit of work with my coach on Sunday and Monday and had a practice round with Cam at Royal Queensland," Higginbottom said. "We were good mates back in the day. We grew up playing together in amateur golf. It was nice to get out there. He was a bit jet lagged but will be right by Thursday. He doesn't do anything that is unbelievably better, but he does it in high-pressure situations. He is the same regardless if he plays on a Monday or a Sunday. I am hitting the ball quite well. It is definitely nice to be back in Australia playing decent events."
Europe-based Novocastrian Blake Windred is also in the field. Branxton rookie Corey Lamb is first reserve.