It often takes some incentive to drag an American golfer to the other side of the world on Thanksgiving. For Jordan Spieth, a substantial but well-earned appearance fee combined with an encouraging Australian coach was enough for him to make his fourth consecutive trip to Australia to spend Thanksgiving away from his family and his beloved Dallas Cowboys.
But while Spieth can't take a step around The Australian Golf Club in Sydney this week without a huge gallery watching his every move, three more Americans are playing the Australian Open in almost complete anonymity.
Zac Blair flies under the radar at the best of times; the baby-faced 27-year-old who stands 5 foot 6 inches was asked by Jack Nicklaus in the players locker room at the Memorial Tournament this year whether his parents had let him walk in unaccompanied.
Blair spent the first two days of the Australian Open playing two groups behind Spieth alongside 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, who has also strolled around with very little fanfare. Blair and Weir both battled in the heavy winds on day one to shoot 75 and 77 respectively. They fought back with 70 and 69 on Friday but both men missed the cut.
This is Blair's second trip to Australia having played in the 2014 Australian Open that Spite won at this venue as well as the 2014 Australian Masters at Metropolitan in Melbourne.
"It's a cool spot," Blair tells ESPN. "It's always fun to travel different places. The golf courses are pretty special down here and there's just fun stuff to do.
"It's always nice to play. The season is done over there [in the U.S.]. It's nice to get out of the snow."
Blair's thirst for golf is insatiable.
Unlike Spieth, who had seven weeks rest prior to teeing it up in Australia, Blair is playing his fifth week in a row. He plays 30-plus PGA Tour events every year, not to mention countless other rounds on various courses around the globe.
He understands the reason why so few Americans travel at this time of year but feels it is worthwhile.
"It's a tough time with Thanksgiving and everything, and everyone has just got done with the season," Blair said. "But for anybody that has nothing going on I think it's a really cool tournament to come down and play."
Some of the great names of American golf are engraved on the Stonehaven Cup: Nicklaus won it six times, and Spieth twice; Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia, Brad Faxon, J. C. (Jesse) Snead, John Morse and Bill Rogers have also triumphed.
No American won between 1993 and 2014, as the tournament's significance and place in global golf dropped off dramatically, but with the Presidents Cup to be held at Royal Melbourne in 2019, Spieth, like Blair, was encouraging of his countrymen to travel down and play.
"I would certainly encourage players to come play next year and right before in '19 when we're over there," Spieth said earlier this week.
"It can only help in my mind and they're going to love it. The guys still talk about the last Presidents Cup in Melbourne, the veterans, just how great of a time it was.
"Phil Mickelson has played on 22 events and that may have been his favourite, other than the winning Ryder Cup team just because that's been harder to do. That experience is up there at the top for the guys. So they've voiced that to us, and the guys are really excited that we're coming back."
Blair is a long way from Presidents Cup calculations having finished outside the top 100 on the FedEx Cup points standings in each of his three full seasons on the PGA Tour, but he has some other motivation to come to Australia. He has a passion for course design, and is building a golf course from scratch in Utah. Hence part of his desire to travel to Australia is to study the designs of the unique golf courses, although the Nicklaus redesigned Australian Golf Club isn't quite the most authentic golf experience Down Under.
"This one is pretty American," Blair said.
"But the stuff that I've seen in Melbourne is definitely a lot more ground game. Very firm and fast. You don't get many courses like that in the States so it's fun to see those."
Blair is disappointed not to be playing the weekend but another trip to Melbourne to play the world-famous sandbelt courses next week will soften the blow.