As Harrison Crowe completed a clinical final round of 4-under 68 to win The National Tournament by two strokes at The National Golf Club, the Order of Merit ramifications happening just below him on the leaderboard were frenetic.

A two-time winner this season, South Australian Jack Buchanan started the final round fifth on the Order of Merit and the man most likely to claim the card made available by Cameron Smith’s DP World Tour exemption as the 2022 Open champion.

The final nine holes of the season saw Quayle and West Australian Curtis Luck switch back and forth between sixth and seventh on the projected Order of Merit, each birdie opportunity and every dropped shot more significant than either could have anticipated.

When Luck made birdie at the par-3 16th in a howling wind he moved into outright second on the leaderboard and sixth on the live Order of Merit projections.

His bogey-bogey finish would prove costly not only for him, but for Buchanan.

Trailing Crowe by three strokes playing the final hole, Quayle hit a 2-iron from 215 metres to eight feet from a back-left pin at the 72nd hole for the birdie that secured second place alone in the tournament and the 107 points he needed to leapfrog Buchanan into fifth by just 10.3 points.

“It was 215-odd metres into a massive wind,” reflected Quayle, who quit the Japan Golf Tour late last year to dedicate himself to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and the pathways it offers.

“Just the shot itself is hard, but I think the circumstance might make that the best shot I’ve ever hit.

“For the last few months, I’ve really not been allowing myself to get too far ahead of myself, which is difficult to do.

“I feel like I was able to have one goal in mind and that was just to win each week I teed it up. I didn’t achieve that, but I feel like I had a really good chance in more than half my starts.

“I’m just incredibly proud and happy with the way I kind of just stuck with it.

“I’ve had three top-fives to finish the year to just sneak past and secure this.

“It’s pretty awesome.”

Peake entered the week with No.2 on the Order of Merit guaranteed.

With Elvis Smylie earning DP World Tour exemption via his victory at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, it promises Peake an almost full schedule when he joins the DP World Tour as a member for the 2026 season.

Although his well-publicised past will make it challenging to maximise the Asian Tour card he earned by winning the NZ Open, he can now look forward to joining the best players on the planet on a major world tour later this year.

“It just solidified the fact of why I came back to the game and gave it another run,” Peake said of his future on the DP World Tour.

“Obviously with words of encouragement which everyone knows from certain people, (coach) Ritchie (Smith), my family and all that.

“It just shows that I’ve proved myself right in making the right decision to come back and play and give it another go.

“It will take a little while before I start getting on the road and start playing these events that it will kind of really sink in then.

“I’m just excited to get going.”

Buchanan was the hard luck story of Sunday’s season finale but there is still a chance he will join Peake and Quayle with a DP World Tour card for next season.

Lucas Herbert’s exemption as a DP World Tour winner runs out at the end of this season.

As the Ford NSW Open champion has now finished third on the Order of Merit, he would be entitled to that exemption if he chose to maintain his membership for the 2026 season.

If not, or if he becomes otherwise exempt, Buchanan is next in line.

Order of Merit final standings
1          Elvis Smylie                  1,358.96 (9 events)
2          Ryan Peake                  1,012.59 (19)
3          Lucas Herbert               758.47 (4)
4          Cameron Smith            735.68 (4)
5          Anthony Quayle           688.46 (15)
6          Jack Buchanan             678.16 (16)
7          Curtis Luck                   594.12 (6)
8          Harrison Crowe            591.81 (12)
9          Corey Lamb                 490.63 (17)
10        Jordan Doull                470.61 (18)