Cypress Lakes has been the home of the Jack Newton International Junior Classic since 2017, an important stepping stone for the leading young players with an eye on professional golf.

A number of players in the field this week have enjoyed success at Cypress Lakes the past five years and given the reduction to a 54-hole tournament starting Friday and the inability to play a practice round has suddenly given them an edge on the field.

Currently fifth on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, Queensland’s Louis Dobbelaar was the boys champion in 2017 as Grace Kim won the girls championship by nine strokes (below).

Cassie Porter finished sixth behind Kim that week but returned in 2019 to win by an extraordinary 12 strokes, the Queenslander convinced that past experience at the course will be an asset with limited preparation.

“It definitely helps seeing the course a few times,” said Porter, who was tied for eighth at TPS Sydney last week.

“It definitely helps winning here too, gives me a bit of confidence but this week will be a completely different course and play completely different.

“Walking the course and seeing how wet it is, it definitely won’t play anything similar.

“It gets tricky with all the blind tee shots. There’s quite a few tee shots where you need to know where to place the ball otherwise there’s little hills and little ponds that come into play that you don’t actually realise.

“Having that knowledge of where to place the ball definitely helps and gives you a better look into some of the greens.

“That will definitely be something that people need to focus on this week.”

Few can claim greater local knowledge than professional debutant Corey Lamb (below).

The 20-year-old lives at Branxton just 15 minutes from Cypress Lakes and with a spot at next week’s Golf Challenge NSW Open secured decided to join the professional ranks this week

Top 20 at the Jack Newton International in both 2017 and 2018, Lamb won the Concord Cup last month and viewed two starts on courses he knows well as the perfect entry into professional golf.

“It’s hard to put into words but this is what I want to do and feels good to have done it now,” Lamb said of turning pro.

“I said to myself that if I could get into the NSW Open I might turn pro and then I got into the NSW Open and then I got a start in this as well.

“I was a member at Concord for three years so I know that course well and when I got a spot here I thought it was definitely time to take a risk.”

Lamb shot a three-under, bogey-free round at Cypress Lakes as a 15-year-old and expects a strong following to get behind him when he tees off at 1.15pm along with Michael Wright and Danielle Vasquez on Friday.

“I’d say I’ll get a few people to come out and watch so it will be good,” Lamb added.

“I played here four years at the International so I know it very well.

“They’ve built all new tees so it’s a bit longer but it will definitely be a big advantage.

“On the back nine you’ve got to know exactly where to hit it. Being wetter will make it a lot longer but normally where you hit on the back nine is very important.”

Other players this week with a history of success at the Jack Newton International are Harrison Crowe (second in 2018, T3 in 2019), amateur Belinda Ji (T7 in 2017, second in 2018) and Lewis Hoath (T3 in 2017 and T9 in 2018).

TPS Hunter Valley presented by Jan Stephenson and Peter O’Malley tees off on Friday morning at 7.30am at Oaks Cypress Lakes Golf and Country Club. The final two rounds will be broadcast on Fox Sports, Kayo and Sky Sport from 2.30pm-5.30pm on Saturday and 12.30pm-5.30pm on Sunday.