Stephen Gallacher continues his American adventure today in the PGA Tour's $6m Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida.

The Dubai Desert Classic champion suffered a first round exit to Ernie Els in last week's WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship and the Scot will be hoping for a more prolonged campaign when he returns to the strokeplay format as he looks to bolster his Ryder Cup qualifying points tally. After the Honda contest, Gallacher, who is joined in the field by his fellow Scot Russell Knox, will stay on in Florida for the lucrative WGC Cadillac Championship.

This week's affair at PGA National sees Rory McIlroy return to the course where he controversially walked off midway through his second round 12 months ago.

The Northern Irishman was defending the Honda Classic title when he withdrew. He initially told reporters that he was in a "bad place mentally" and then cited toothache as the cause of his early exit before issuing an apology over the whole incident. In the midst of his well-documented troubles and the scrutiny that came with his switch of equipment, the Honda event was a low moment in a toiling campaign but, having won in Australia at the end of the year, McIlroy tees up this week with renewed purpose.

"It is one of my favourite events of the year and winning in 2012 was an important landmark in my career," he said. "Last year, admittedly, I had a tough week, a forgettable week. I guess I let frustrations get the better of me and perhaps should have adopted a more mature approach."

On the European Tour, Jack Doherty, one of a host of Scots competing in the Tshwane Open, will be hoping to build on a top-10 finish on the Sunshine Tour last weekend. Doherty finished eighth in the South African circuit's Dimension Data Pro-Am and will be eager to carry that form on to the European Tour and kick-start his rookie season at the top table.

Dawie van der Walt defends the crown he won a year ago and forms part of a vast army of host-nation hopefuls who have dominated events in their own country recently.

In Singapore, Catriona Matthew tees up in the LPGA Tour's HSBC Champions event in confident mood after a rousing finish to last week's LPGA Thailand Championship in which she closed with a brace of 65s to charge up into third place.

On the amateur front, Scott Gibson of Southerness and Perth's Daniel Young eased through to the quarter-finals of the South African Amateur Championship.

Gibson beat Robert Boujas 3 and 2 while Young swept to a 5 and 4 victory over Werner Theart.

Conor Syme of Dumfries and Jamie Savage of Cawder both fell at the last-16 stage.