All those teeing it up in Final Stage earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 but Ruffels and Drewitt were able to secure guaranteed starts in the first eight events of the year by virtue of finishing inside the top 40 after four rounds.

Starting the final round just outside the top 10, a 2-under 70 was enough for Ruffels to finish tied for 21st with Drewitt earning a return to the Korn Ferry Tour courtesy of a fourth round of 3-under 69 to be one back of Ruffels in a tie for 27th.

The pair will now have eight events to improve their position ahead of each of the re-ranks to earn further starts on the Korn Ferry Tour and push towards their ultimate goal of promotion to the PGA TOUR in 2021.

A star amateur, Ruffels has already played in 19 PGA TOUR events by way of invitation but could not hold back his pride in taking a major step towards playing his way onto the world’s richest golf tour.

“What a year!” Ruffels posted on Instagram.

“2017 was a year to forget, 2018 wasn’t any better. But we persisted.

“Took a lot of people to bring me where I am now but couldn’t be happier to secure myself on the Korn Ferry Tour next season with a T-21 at Q school.

“Can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!”

Elation for Ruffels and Drewitt was tempered from an Australian point of view with Harrison Endycott’s heartbreaking near miss, an even par round of 72 seeing the New South Welshman down 26 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 41st.

It was a similar story for New Zealand’s Nick Voke whose back nine of 3-over 39 resulted in a fall of 28 spots into a tie for 53rd.

Queensland’s Daniel Nisbet withdrew from the tournament halfway through his third round sitting at 3-over par.

Korn Ferry Tour
Q School Final Stage
Orange County National, Winter Gardens, Florida

T21         Ryan Ruffels       68-65-69-70—272
T27         Brett Drewitt     67-66-71-69—273
T41         Harrison Endycott            71-64-68-72—275
T53         Nick Voke            68-68-68-72—276
WD         Daniel Nisbet     71-74-37—182