Australia’s rising star Curtis Luck has achieved what he wanted from the Web.com Tour qualifying tournament, earning an exemption for the first chunk of the 2018 season on the development tour in the United States.
Luck threatened to win the qualifying tournament today in Phoenix, Arizona, before slipping back to finish tied-third at 22-under par after rounds of 67-64-68-67 at Whirlwind Golf Club, with two bogeys on the back nine.
But any finish inside the top 10 was enough to give him an exemption for the first 12 tournaments of the 2018 Web.com Tour season, which begins in January in the Bahamas.
The Perth 21-year-old is now well-placed for a tilt at the secondary tour next year, where a top-25 finish on the money order would give him a card to play on the PGA Tour in 2018-19.
Luck already had some status on Web.com for 2018 as a result of his results playing on invitations on the PGA Tour in 2017, but he played in Phoenix with the ambition of improving his status.
The other Australians, Brett Drewitt (85th) , Ray Beaufils (73rd) and Emirates Australian Open winner Cam Davis (113th), were outside the top 45 who earned their cards for the Web.com Tour in 2018. They will have to make do with conditional status.
Luck graduated from Golf Western Australia’s elite programs and had a stellar amateur career, winning the US Amateur and the Asia-Pacific Amateur, earning a place in the Masters tournament at Augusta National in 2017 where he made the cut.
He is one of a cluster of young Australian players tipped for big futures in the game.