Cameron Smith, Rod
Pampling and Brett Drewitt are headed to the PGA TOUR in 2017 after a stellar
week for the Australians in the third of four Web.com Tour playoff events.

Smith finished second
at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital event in Ohio to climb to third on the
four tournament money list and assure himself a return to the main Tour in 2017.

Drewitt finished three
shots behind Smith and T5 to climb to 16^th on the money list while
Pampling was a model of consistency for the third straight week to finish T12
in Ohio and maintain his 11^th placing on the money list.

The top 25 on the four
tournament money list at the conclusion of next week’s Web.com Tour
Championship will be awarded PGA TOUR cards for 2017.

Cameron Percy, who
missed the cut this week, is the only other Australian currently inside the
number sitting 24^th on the money list and a good chance to head back
to the main Tour with some good play in the season finale next week.

Stuart Appleby dropped
from 24th on the list to 33^rd on the back of a T34 finish in Ohio
while Rhein Gibson moved up three places to T45 in earnings with one event
remaining.

Reigning Australian
Open champion Matt Jones has had a difficult time in the three tournaments to
date, withdrawing from the first event and missing the cut this week to be
languishing at T85 on the money list and unlikely to regain his PGA TOUR
status.

Smith was the standout
performer this week coming within one shot of claiming the title in Ohio on his
way to an outright second place finish.

The Queenslander
struggled to find his feet in his rookie season in America in 2016 but will be
better for the 12 months’ experience when he returns in 2017.

Starting Sunday in the
top five but five shots behind overnight leader Martin Flores, Smith played
steady golf in the final round with five birdies against two bogies to climb
the leaderboard.

An untimely bogey at
the 15^th hole proved the difference between second and making a
playoff but the 22-year-old will be rightfully pleased with his performance for
the week.

Also taking a lot of
confidence to next week’s final event will be Brett Drewitt who played some his
best golf of the year after a disappointing performance last week.

Drewitt opened last
week’s Boise Open with a 65 to be in the top five but missed the cut after a
horror second round 75.

However, he put those
memories behind him with scores of 69-69-70-68 to record just his second top 10
of the year and wrap up a PGA TOUR card at the same time.

For the veteran
Pampling it has been a satisfying three weeks, the Queenslander finding some
consistency in his game after a difficult year on the PGA TOUR.

The two-time TOUR
winner earned his status back for the 2016 season after a solid 2015
performance on the secondary Tour but never produced his best golf.

He missed nine cuts in
18 starts and finished 195^th on the FedEx Cup table though will be
hoping to improve on that in 2017.

While the top 25 after
the play-offs join the top 25 earners from the regular season money list, all
will be playing next week to improve their eligibility status.

The higher up the list
a player finishes the more playing opportunities they are afforded on the 2017
PGA TOUR meaning there is still plenty to play for at the season ending Web.com
Tour Championship at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye Valley course next week.