Jeffress will be well supported by Lucas Main and trainees Daniel Sheaffe, Mark Bryant, Ben Hamilton and Matthew Button.

Jeffress and Main are both local juniors,

learning their golf trade at the Port Macquarie Golf Club.

Sheaffe is the trainee professional at Port Macquarie Golf Club while Bryant, Hamilton and Button all served part of their traineeship at Port Macquarie.

The 65 professionals are playing for a $22,000 purse and there is another $3000 worth of trophies for the amateurs.

There is a strong field of professionals playing in the 36-hole event over the next two days and many of them are well-known in Port Macquarie.

Jeff Wagner, who recently snared a title at Dunheved, won the Better Homes Pro-Am last year and his recent form suggests that he will be one of the main contenders again this year.

Another past winner who must be a major threat is Ed Stedman.

Stedman was the 2000 winner and he has been competing successfully in Europe.

Stedman shot the best score on the final day of last year's Better Homes Pro-Am to take out the calcutta.

Leigh McKechnie and Aaron Byrnes are

regulars in the Port Macquarie event and always finish well up the prizemoney list.

McKechnie recently took out the circuit event on the Central Coast while Byrnes won at Northbridge two weeks ago.

Richard Swift is new to the professional ranks after a successful amateur career.

He knows his way around the Port Macquarie course having competed here in the Seaside Classic as a member of the NSW team.

He recently won the Pro-Am at Mystic Sands.

Coffs Harbour's Shane Cutmore is a former Seaside Classic winner and always performs well on the Port Macquarie course.

Jeffress has been a professional golfer for a little over four years and, in the past two seasons, he has finished in the top three in the NSW Order of Merit.

This year Jeffress has switched coach and is now under the guidance of local professional Tony Attwill.

In recent months he has been playing in Queensland and three weeks ago the shot eight under par to win the Mackay Open.

Last week he finished second at the difficult Brookwater course with a round of one under par.

He was four under par with five holes to go but dropped three shots in the closing holes.

The amateurs will be playing a teams event with each side consisting of a professional and three amateurs.

At each hole they will take the aggregate of the best three stableford scores.

The Pro-Am will be preceded tonight by a dinner where the guest speaker is former international and Balmain rugby league player Ben Elias.

The Better Homes Pro-Am at Port Macquarie is the anchor event for the Lower North Coast circuit.

Today the pros are at Forster and, after two days in Port Macquarie, they play at Wauchope on Sunday, Kempsey on Monday and South West Rocks on Tuesday.

The professionals will be putting something back into the game when they conduct a number of clinics tomorrow and Friday.

Tomorrow there will be a chipping clinic at 3pm followed by a putting clinic at 3.30pm.

On Friday the clinics are in the morning with the chipping at 9 and the putting at 9.30. All are welcome at these clinics.

At 3pm this afternoon there will be a long drive competition for the professionals.

This will be held on the first hole and is

sponsored by Trademark Building Supplies.

The prizemoney for the long drive competition is $500.