Rhein Gibson and Jamie Arnold have made big strides towards a 2018 PGA TOUR card after sharing fifth place at the Web.com Tour’s Nashville Open.

Gibson moved 20 places up the money list to 50^th while Arnold, already the best placed Australian on the earnings table, moved 14 spots to 38^th.

The top 25 at the end of the season earn playing rights to the PGA TOUR and both now have a legitimate chance to battle for one of the available cards.

For Gibson it was a season’s best performance as the 31-year-old tries to return to the big stage, his previous best a T15 in the second event of the season.

Gibson qualified for the PGA TOUR at the end of 2015 via the Web.com finals series but failed to keep his card in his rookie season.

For Arnold the good play is a continuation of a recent run, the 34-year-old Web.com rookie recording his second top five of the year.

It’s been an impressive bounce back by the Sydneysider who missed the cut in five of his first six events at the start of the season but has failed to qualify for the weekend only twice since.

With 12 events remaining on the secondary Tour schedule Arnold is now in good position to press for a top 25 result while Gibson is certainly capable of getting on a hot run himself.

Gibson and Arnold were among five Australians to tee up in Nashville, veteran Peter Lonard the only other to make the cut and finishing T26 after a 1-over final round.

It was a disappointing finish for Lonard who played well all week and began the final round in fourth place.

However, several delays in play caused by lightning in the area didn’t help his cause and after going out in a respectable 1-under he made a double bogey at the par-3 10^th to fall out of contention.

The performance is an encouraging tune-up for Lonard as he gets set to make his Senior Tour debut at the Senior Open Championship at the end of July.

Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby were the last of the Australians in the field but neither survived the 36 hole cut.