Golf: Geary claims Web.com Tour place

Josh Geary finished second on the PGA Tour China Series to book a place on next year's Web.com Tour in the United States. Photo / File

When Josh Geary lost his playing rights on the USA's second tier Web.com Tour in 2012 he made a pact with himself to get back on that Tour.

Now Geary, 30, has his chance after his second-place finish on the PGA Tour China Series gave him exempt status on the Web.com Tour for early season events, starting with the Panama Claro Championship in late-January. It is the stepping stone to break into the highly lucrative US PGA Tour where his former Bay of Plenty teammate Danny Lee did so well this year.

Geary says he can't wait to get back playing golf in the US and believes he is better prepared this time round.

"My game is in a lot better shape and hopefully I can get on there and just play the one season and go straight up," he said. "I am finally ready for the PGA Tour. I have been around for a while now and know all the ins and outs of it all and how I operate best as well."

His form in China was consistently good throughout the year. He won three times from nine starts with earnings of $175,467.89 certainly easing the financial pressure.

"It was important for me to play more events and playing against top players every week helped keep me sharp," Geary said. "The courses have been very tough over there which I guess separated the top players from the rest of the field a bit. The events were very well put together and we played for some pretty good money as well.

"It would have been nice to have finished number one. I ended up not playing the last two events and instead played in Australia at the Open and PGA. It was kind of hard to say no to those two. I weighed up the goal of playing at the Olympics next year and they had more weighting points available, also British Open spots and playing for probably six times the money."

To make his Olympic dream come true, third-ranked Kiwi Geary needs to get past second-placed Ryan Fox to join Danny Lee in Rio. He knows good form early next year in the US could make that happen.

Geary would be welcome back in China. "Josh's three victories speak for themselves. To win 25 per cent of our tournaments is a tremendous accomplishment," Greg Carlson, PGA Tour China Series executive director, said.

"He should transition well to the Web.com Tour, having already played over there. His professional golf experience really showed through this year in China."