WORLD number three James Wade will head the field of 108 players in the inaugural Australian Open Players Championship next Sunday.

The first PDC Pro Tour event to be staged in Australia will form the culmination of a week of events at the Shoalhaven Heads Bowling & Recreation Club for the William Cross Pro-Am series.

Wade, the Stan James World Matchplay runner-up recently, is joined by Ronnie Baxter, Denis Ovens, Dave Honey and Robert Thornton in travelling to Australia for the events.

Blue Square UK Open runner-up Gary Mawson is one of three Americans heading to Australia, joined by John Kuczynski and Scott Kirchner, while Pat Orreal, the Queenslander who starred in last year's PartyBets.com Grand Slam of Darts and moved to the UK to compete on the PDC circuit, returns to his homeland.

South African duo Charles Losper and Wynand Havenga, who have represented their country at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship in the last two years, are among the players who have travelled across the Indian Ocean to take part in the William Cross Pro-Am.

They will join stars from Australia and New Zealand in action over the next week, with Kiwi champion Warren French following up his qualification for December's World Championship by taking part in New South Wales.

Warren Parry has also travelled from New Zealand, while Russell Stewart, Paul Nicholson and Orreal are also seeded for the Australian Open Players Championship, alongside teenager Mitchell Clegg.

Clegg won the Oceanic Masters as a 15-year-old in 2006 and competed in the World Championship later that year - and is joined in competing next week by brother David and father Greg.

The 16 seedings came from the PDC Order of Merit, with the DPA Order of Merit used in case of ties, and 16 final players will come from a qualifier to be held in Shoalhaven. The tournament will be the best of five sets, best of three legs per set throughout.