This week’s $400,000 Golf Challenge NSW Open is the richest event still left on the 2021/2022 schedule and has the potential to bring about further changes among the Order of Merit front-runners.

On the back of his TPS Hunter Valley win at Cypress Lakes Resort on Sunday Pike is now sixth on the moneylist and less than $7,000 from a top-three position that at season’s end will be rewarded with a full card on next year’s DP World Tour.

That third position is now where Dimi Papadatos is domiciled following his tie for 10th in the Hunter Valley, edging past Queensland PGA champion Anthony Quayle who missed the cut at Cypress Lakes.

The top five is otherwise unchanged but Pike has put himself in position to either finish top three and book a spot on the DP World Tour or a top-five finish that will earn direct entry into the Korn Ferry Tour Final Qualifying School at the end of the year.

Now a three-time winner on the Australasian Tour, the 36-year-old displayed the patient mindset that has been a focus in recent years to edge New Zealand’s Momoka Kobori at the third playoff hole on Sunday.

The $36,000 in prize money pushes Pike to sixth on the Order of Merit with an eye on a further climb over the course of the remaining five events.

“To be brutally honest, it was in my mind before the week even started,” Pike said of his Order of Merit aspirations.

“Once I had a good finish at the Aussie PGA – that one being the richest event on the calendar – the plan was then to put the foot to the floor and let’s see what we can do.

“I didn’t have a goal. I don’t have a goal in terms of finishing one, two, five, 10, it was just, ‘Let’s go’. Play everything, see what we can do and see where we can finish.”

Pike pocketed $32,333.33 for his tie for sixth at Royal Queensland in January and has since recorded strong finishes at TPS Victoria (T12), Vic Open (T8) and TPS Sydney (T14), Sunday’s win providing the leap that he needed.

“You’ve got to win – that’s obviously really difficult – but you’ve just got to be patient,” said Pike, whose victory was set up by a round of seven-under 62 in Saturday’s second round.

“You’ve got to come back the next week and know that it can turn on a dime real quick.

“We’ve got so many opportunities. I knew if I was to just win one – if I was to play well in a NSW Open – these things just leapfrog you ahead of the guys.”

Reigning Order of Merit champion Brad Kennedy is the only player currently in the top 10 not entered for Concord this week with less than $9,000 separating third from sixth.

ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit (through TPS Hunter Valley)

1. Jediah Morgan            $184,943.77
2. Andrew Dodt $107,526.26
3. Dimitrios Papadatos  $94,358.50
4. Anthony Quayle          $93,137.33
5. Louis Dobbelaar         $90,408.77
6. Aaron Pike     $87,745.83
7. Brad Kennedy              $85,985
8. Ben Campbell              $61,821.20
9. Daniel Gale    $61,375.63
10. David Micheluzzi      $58,719.59