Cameron Davis has all but assured a PGA Tour card after the defending Australian Open champion finished third in the opening event of the Web.com Tour Finals in Ohio.

Winner of the Knoxville Golf Open earlier in the year, Davis seemed destined to finish the regular season inside the top 25 but a poor run of form and a string of missed cuts saw him drop out of the running for a prized PGA Tour card.

But a second chance in the four-event Web.com Tour Finals has appeared to have reinvigorated the 23-year-old from Sydney, posting a final round of 66 at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship to finish one shot out of a playoff.

PGA Tour regulars Robert Streb and Peter Malnati were tied at 12-under at the end of 72 holes, Streb’s par at the first playoff hole enough to secure the victory.

With the rankings from the regular season reset for the finals, Davis is now well positioned in third to claim one of the 25 PGA Tour cards that will be distributed following the Tour Championship, his Sunday surge aided by an eagle at the par-5 12th.

“I was in a position where I was going okay,” Davis said, “but I still didn’t really have much to lose so I just went out there knowing that if I had a good round and kind of pieced one together … there wasn’t much wind today so I wasn’t sure I was going to get as high up as I did with that score, but it kind of worked out the way it has. It’s nice to be up near the top.”

The finish was enough to move Davis into the mix, but with several groups still on the course, the Australian was forced to sit and wait, watching the leaderboard to see if the finish would be enough to lock up a card.

“It would be nice to play the next three weeks without having to think about it,” Davis said as he waited, “but at the same time, even if I do sneak in there, I still want to play well over the next three weeks, so I wouldn’t let it get to my head or anything like that. It would be cool to celebrate knowing that I’m there if I do get in, but otherwise, I still really want to make the most of the next three events. It’s still really big tournaments and really strong fields, so I just want to make sure I can kind of keep it going and play well the next three events.”

The solo-third finish came with a $68,000 paycheck for Davis, enough to secure the 2017 Australian Open champion a spot in The Finals 25 and a TOUR card.

“Any good week will get you in,” Davis remarked of the Finals, “but you’ve got four of them as well, so you don’t have to do it all the first week.  If you don’t have a great week, you still have plenty of time. So I just kept on telling myself, ‘You don’t have to rush and do it all now, but if you play really well, take what you get.’ So I did end up playing really well over the last couple of days and it’s nice to be where I am.”

It was a positive start to the finals for a number of the Australian contingent with Curtis Luck continuing on from the form that enabled him to squeeze in to finish tied for fifth while Matt Jones will be disappointed that a final round of 1-over 72 saw him drop back to a tie for 10th, bogeys at 14, 15 and 18 sure to leave a sour taste.

Aaron Baddeley sits just inside the top 25 after one event courtesy of a final round of 67 that moved him up 24 places into a tie for 24th with Rhein Gibson the only other Australian to make the cut, finishing tied for 58th.

Cameron Percy, Brett Drewitt, John Senden and Stuart Appleby all missed the cut and have work to do, starting this week at the DAP Championship in Beachwood, Ohio.