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)

Harnessing the thousands of rounds he has played at Michael’s Golf Club on Sydney’s southern coastline, Crowe defied the 50km/h winds that whipped across the Gunnamatta Course to post the only bogey-free round of the final day of the 2024/2025 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season.

Paired with Quinn Croker (71) and Denzel Ieremia (76) in the final group, Crowe shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 19-under for the tournament, two strokes clear of Queenslander Anthony Quayle (69), who produced the shot of his life to make birdie at the par-4 18th and snare outright second.

That result saw Quayle leapfrog South Australian Jack Buchanan (68) into fifth on the Order of Merit and secure a DP World Tour card for the 2026 season, a target he set himself when he turned his back on the Japan Golf Tour to play more on home soil late last year.

There are Order of Merit rewards coming too for Crowe, who finishes the year in eighth position. That guarantees him a start at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour in Scotland in October and will open the door to a host of major qualifying schools later in the year.

For a 23-year-old who burst onto the scene by winning both the New South Wales Open and the Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2022, this latest win looms as the springboard he has been chasing ever since.

“I’ve been hanging around for this win for quite some time,” said Crowe.

“It just feels great to finally get it done and I feel like this could be the one that kind of kicks the door down a little bit more.”

A message from coach John Serhan after Round 3 emphasised the need to stay present and be ready for whatever the conditions or other players might throw at him.

Before he had even reached the first green there were seven players tied for the lead at 15-under, but what shaped as a Sunday sprint to the finish soon developed into a battle of attrition.

Croker and Quayle both had brief stints in the outright lead as Todd Sinnott, Andrew Martin and Maverick Antcliff all joined the conversation.

Crowe, Quayle, Martin, Croker and Antcliff were all tied at 17-under midway through the front nine, Antcliff the first to break out of the logjam and reach 18-under with birdie at the par-5 sixth.

NZ Open champion and Rookie of the Year Ryan Peake was in the mix until the birdie putts stopped dropping while Curtis Luck surged after the turn thanks to birdies at 11, 12 and 16.

His bogey-bogey finish would have Order of Merit implications but as he and others dropped shots, Crowe remained resilient.

A brilliant 5-iron to seven feet at the par-4 ninth went unrewarded but a par save on 13 and another superb 5-iron into the par-4 14th gave Crowe a three-shot buffer over the closing holes.

“That was certainly one of the best shots I’ve hit,” said Crowe.

“I think I had 175 (metres) to the pin and I just thought, I’m going to hit 5-iron and I’m going to really hit this thing low.

“To save par on the hole before and then to hit that that shot into there just calmed me down a little bit more.

“It was very testing out there and I just kind of had to keep bringing myself back and just stay really in the moment.

“It was easy to wander off – what the lead was, what the score was – and trying to look too far ahead but I think I did a really, really good job today of just being present and staying really, really patient.”

Quayle’s second-place finish was his best result of the season and eighth top-five finish as Martin (67), Luck (68) and Croker (71) shared third.

Given Elvis Smylie’s BMW Australian PGA Championship win, Peake will effectively assume the category of this tour’s No.1 player when he embarks on his rookie season on the DP World Tour later this year.

LIVE SCORES

There is a major championship debut awaiting the 32-year-old at The Open Championship, reward for his victory at the New Zealand Open that formed part of the Open Qualifying Series.

Yet Peake’s well-documented past lingers, the after-effects of five years in prison creating roadblocks that others in his position never have to confront.

He has a Great Britain and Northern Ireland passport that ensures he will be able to tee it up at Royal Portrush from July 17-20 but entry into other countries – particularly throughout Asia – will be problematic.

Another bonus of Peake’s win in the co-sanctioned NZ Open is status on the Asian Tour. Using that status, however, is mired in visa and immigration law.

It’s why as his life-changing season draws to a close, he can’t yet bring himself to look too far forward.

“I’ve sat down with my manager and team and we’ve looked at schedules, but as far as excitement goes, it’s not quite there yet,” conceded Peake, who tees off at 12:50pm Thursday with former Order of Merit winners Jed Morgan and David Micheluzzi.

“We’re not a hundred percent sure on where exactly I’ll get to first because it’s going to be a bit of a process.

“There’s a lot of countries that I will get into, but it’s not just going to be a couple-of-week process.

“We’re looking more between four to six months of figuring it all out.

“It’s all my own doing, but it still does suck.”

But for the knocks that may come, there are moments to look forward to.

Peake’s family will join him for The Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland and he will finish 2025 as a member of the DP World Tour.

What happens in between will be determined on a week-to-week basis.

“It’s a major – it’s my first major – and my whole family’s coming so it’s going to be a very special week,” he added.

“But in saying that, once that week’s done, it’s back on to the other tours as well.

“Obviously I want to play well and see what happens from there, but it is one tournament as opposed to a whole season out there.

“It is all a new experience for me, so every tournament that I play on the calendar season is going to be one to look forward to.”

Round 1 of The National Tournament teed off at 8:10am on Thursday morning and entry to spectators is free all four days. The final two rounds are broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 3pm-6pm Saturday and 1pm-6pm Sunday AEDT.

As the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia 2024/2025 season reaches its conclusion at The National Tournament this week, a variety of opportunities and exemptions await those who finish prominently on the Order of Merit.

Jack Buchanan and Anthony Quayle shape as the two with most to gain.

Elvis Smylie has secured the Order of Merit title but, as the winner of the co-sanctioned BMW Australian PGA Championship, is now exempt on the DP World Tour until the end of the 2027 season.

NZ Open champion Ryan Peake sits second on the Order of Merit and is guaranteed one of the three DP World Tour cards on offer for the top three not otherwise exempt.

Which is where it gets tricky.

Three-time DP World Tour winner Lucas Herbert and The Open champion of three years ago, Cameron Smith, both qualify for the Order of Merit having played the minimum four events and currently sit third and fourth.

Which leaves Buchanan (No.5) and Quayle (No.6).

Given Herbert is not in the field this week, either can leapfrog into third spot with victory on Sunday.

Circumstances could dictate that both might earn DP World Tour status without a win this week, but confirmation could be weeks in the waiting.

For two players both looking to launch their international careers, doors are about to open regardless of what happens at The National.

Winner of the WA PGA championship and Webex Players Series South Australia, Buchanan is exempt into 10 International Series events on the Asian Tour and believes he now has the grounding to take his game to the world.

“If someone told me I did what I did this season, I probably wouldn’t believe them,” said Buchanan, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Tuesday.

“I always have a bit of self-belief, but as my official first rookie year on the Aussie Tour, having two wins and some other good results in some big events is a pretty good achievement.

“I’m not too sure how it all works with the Order of Merit stuff, but I’m in a pretty good position to where a win this week would pretty likely get me a European Tour card.

“A lot of people would tell you they want to be world No.1 or whatever, but I always just want to play big events and have big moments in big events, wherever that may take me.”

After seven years playing the Japan Golf Tour, Quayle hit reset and returned to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia late last year.

With seven top-five finishes from his past 12 starts, the 30-year-old can see a path to pursue his career either in Europe or in the US.

“The path I was going down in Japan was not a productive one,” said Quayle, who needs all 190 points awarded to the winner this week to surpass Herbert and Smith. He trails Buchanan by 63 points.

“It was hard to really see any kind of progress being made or love of the game really. It was just really difficult.

“Right now, the pathway is not as clear or straightforward as what you might like it to be, but I know that there will be opportunities. I just have to be a bit more open-minded with it.

“Since I finished third at the Aussie PGA, I’ve already got some (DP World Tour) points that don’t show up on the moneylist now, but they kind of count. With the Alfred Dunhill Links, that’ll be a DP event and if I play well that week, I might rack up a few more points.

“I’ll be doing the US Open and British Open final qualifying, so if I can get into one of those, there’s also a lot of points on offer there.

“There’s still some avenues. If I play how I’m playing at the moment, I feel like it’ll open some doors.”

In addition to the three DP World Tour cards, the top 10 Order of Merit finishers earn an exemption into the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, the leading five players get a spot at the Singapore Classic and Hero Indian Open next year and there are exemptions into Final Stage of Qualifying Schools for the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Asian Tour.

Round 1 tees off at 8:10am on Thursday morning at The National’s Gunnamatta Course.

The final two rounds are broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 3pm-6pm Saturday and 1pm-6pm Sunday AEDT.