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Lucas Herbert is set to reach No.75 in the world golf rankings after his seventh top-10 finish on the European Tour this season.
Eleven months ago Lucas Herbert and Cameron Davis arrived at the Australian Open with big ambitions but little status on golf's international tours.
They will return to the national championship in Sydney next month as big success stories, both now ranked in the world's top 100 and established on major tours after taking different paths.
Davis, 23, gained more attention, firstly by winning the Australian Open from a field including Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, then winning on the web.com Tour and playing his way onto the US PGA Tour.
But 22-year-old Herbert is set to surpass him by going to world No.75 this week after finishing tied third in the British Masters on Sunday - his seventh top-10 finish on the European Tour this season.
Herbert, who led the Australian Open at the halfway mark before finishing tied for sixth, started with no European Tour status and has now soared to 38th in the Race to Dubai standings (money list) with 875,221 euros ($A1.4 miilion) in prize money.
Backing up from his tie for second at last month's Portugal Masters, where he led for three rounds, the young Victorian looked a real chance to break through and win the British Masters title.
He made final round birdies on the second, fourth, fifth and sixth at Walton Heath to turn in 32.
However, three bogeys on the back nine proved costly as he finished four shots behind winner Eddie Pepperell.
Herbert's third consecutive top-10 finish took him past Wade Orsmby as the leading Australian on the European Tour and he admits he's had to make major adjustments to his goals.
"I think since the start of the year, it's just been trying to get my European Tour card. That's kind of what I've just been thinking about," Herbert told iseekgolf.com.
"So I've worked harder and harder and stressed about that forever and ever; and finally once I hit that goal it would have been very easy for me to just relax and maybe just settle a little bit on it.
"(I will) probably set some out-there world ranking goals to finish the end of the year by and we're sort of making a bit of a start on that.
"But I think that's probably really kept my head in and kept the motivation going these last two weeks."
