Lucas Herbert’s rise in world golf continued this week when the 22-year-old was one of five Australasians to earn a card for the 2018 PGA TOUR China Series.

Herbert made the difficult decision to skip the Oates Vic Open in his home state to pursue a card in China and the choice paid dividends when he finished runner-up in the four-round tournament.

Also earning cards were D J Loypur, Kevin Yuan, New Zealand’s Luke Toomey and Andrew Schoenewille who survived a three-way playoff to grab the final card.

Fellow Australian Cory Hale was also in the playoff and will have conditional status in 2018.

Herbert has been in outstanding form over the Australian summer and continued his good play in China to set up a full playing schedule for 2018.

He entered the final round one shot behind Sweden’s Oskar Arvidsson but it was Herbert and the American Kang who battled down the stretch.

“I felt really good out there,” Herbert said of his final round 67 to finish runner-up by a shot.

“It was good to get off to a really hot start and take advantage of that front-9 downwind, and it was pretty cruisy on the back, wasn’t too much stress, so it was a nice day out there.

“I think at hole 6 or 7 I sort of said to [Kang], ‘I’m not letting you win this one easy’ so there were good competitive juices for the day.

“It’s pretty easy to get complacent and just play for second or just play for top-15 when you’re a long way in front of the number.”

While Herbert’s play all four days was impressive so too, was the effort of New Zealand’s Luke Toomey who was 8-over through the first 11 holes of the tournament but fought back to gain one of the 15 available cards.

“I’m pretty relieved and also ecstatic just to be back in form again,” said Toomey.

“Starting off after a win last week, I almost kind of slacked off and maybe fell into the trap of playing with Lucas, one of my good friends.

“Then I realised I was 8-over and had a bit of a chat with myself and got my head back in the game and now here I am.”

A total of 12 Australasians teed up in the qualifier, the first of two for international players hoping to play the PGA Tour China in 2018.

Missing out on cards were Brady Watt, Nabil Abdul, Douen An, Joseph Darcy and New Zealanders Hayden Beard, Joseph Darcy, Sean Tan and Cameron Jones.