Ryan Ruffels’ hopes fo graduating to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 are well and truly alive after he finished tied for 12th at the PGA TOUR-Latinoamerica’s Banco del Pacifico Open in Ecuador.

The top five on the Order of Merit at the end of the year earn automatic promotion to the primary pathway to the PGA TOUR the following year, Ruffels maintaining his position at eighth on the moneylist with a 3-under final round of 69.

A double-bogey was the only blot of his round three scorecard of 70 and it was two dropped shots late in his round that prevented the 21-year-old from making an even greater impression on the leaderboard.

Runner-up in two tournaments at the start of the season, Ruffels made birdies at the fourth, eighth and ninth holes to turn in 3-under and added a fourth birdie at the par-5 11th to continue his Sunday charge.

Back-to-back bogeys at 14 and 15 saw Ruffels fall out of the top 10, picking up one of those dropped shots at the par-5 17th to record his seventh top-15 result of the year.

With five events remaining on the PGA TOUR-Latinoamerica schedule Ruffels is less than $US6,000 shy of fifth place on the Order of Merit.