World No.1 Jason Day has taken Ryan Ruffels under his wing in Columbus this week as the teenager needs a big finish to keep his PGA tour dreams alive.
Ruffels will exhaust his seventh and last sponsors invite of the season at the Memorial Tournament this week knowing only a solo runner-up finish or better, will see him eligible for more invites this year.
A top 10 finish at Muirfield Village would buy him another start but outside of that his only way of teeing it up for the remainder of the year would be via Monday qualifying.
Day is not ready to write off the 18-year-old and used his membership privileges at the course to help his young compatriot.
"Ryan has a bunch of talent, even more talent than I had at the same age," Day said.
"I had him out on course last Sunday and I did my best to impart some advice. Hopefully he can have a good week and keep moving towards being out on tour on a permanent basis."
While temporary membership might be a bridge too far, the more realistic goal is to ensure he gains enough points to get a start in the end of year secondary tour playoffs where 25 PGA tour cards are awarded.
Ruffels has 80 FedEx Cup points from his six starts and last season it took 103 points to make it into the web.com tour finals.
Finishing 48th alone would garner the 23 point shortfall Ruffels has right now, but in reality the qualifying number could be much higher, or even less, and as such the Victorian is aiming bigger this week.
"I maybe haven't played as well as I would have hoped but out here it's just one week and everything sort of changes," Ruffels said.
"The secondary finals are a big target for me. A top 20 this week should get me pretty close to it and if I can get into those playoffs then I have a good chance to get a tour card."
Making those playoffs also ensures Ruffels can play the web.com tour next season if he fails to earn a PGA tour card.
"Talking to Jason he says the year he had on that tour was really beneficial for his development," Ruffels added.
The fear comes if Ruffels does not play well in the 120-man invitational this week and then fails to qualify for any events for the rest of the year.
He would likely not be eligible for the secondary finals in that case and would be facing Q-school for the secondary tour just to have status anywhere.
"I'm not panicked," he said.
"Sure I'd love to play great this week and not have to worry about it but if I don't I won't get too stressed.
"I feel my game is good enough and I know I need to be patient with it because sooner or later it is going to click."
Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Steven Bowditch, John Senden, Matt Jones, Geoff Ogilvy, Marc Leishman, Rod Pampling and Nathan Holman join Day and Ruffels in a strong Australian contingent.
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