36 locals are scheduled to tee off in the opening round of the Papua New Guinea Golf Open in Port Moresby on Thursday.
After many years as a successful pro-am event, this year marks the first time the PNG Open will be a fully fledged tournament on the Australian PGA Tour.
The event has a purse of AU$140,000 with world ranking points also up for grabs.
The bulk of the 109-strong field is from Australia, including the winner of last week's Morobe Open in Lae, Damien Jordan.
The 34 year old is on his second visit to PNG and said the week for the locals.
"It's a great opportunity for them to get to play with the pros. Obviously we only come up here once a year but I mean just to see the looks on some of their faces when you hit shots and whatever - they love it, they love having us here which is great as well. We run clinics and the junior pro-am and stuff like that as well. When you finish your round obviously that's your down-time as soon as you finish you try and help out as much as you can while you can."
The PNG Open champion will also walk away with an exemption onto the Australian PGA Tour until the end of the 2017 season.
The 10th hole during the 2014 PNG Open at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club. Photo: Facebook / PNG Golf Open