Graeme Storm has retained his European Tour card for next season after Patrick Reed failed to compete in the required number of events in the Race to Dubai.
Players are required to compete in five "regular" European Tour events outside of the majors and World Golf Championships to earn full membership, and Reed fell short of that target this season.
The world No 8 opted to pull out of last week's Turkish Airlines Open and he is not in the field for the Nedbank Golf Challenge starting on Thursday, live on Sky Sports, meaning he has teed up in only three regular tournaments in 2016.
The American Ryder Cup star has now had all his Race to Dubai points stripped for the season, and the main beneficiary was English veteran Storm as he moved up to the critical 111th place in the standings.
Storm bogeyed the final hole at the Portugal Masters last month to miss out on retaining his card by just €100, and he was contemplating a trip to the dreaded Qualifying School.
But the 38-year-old is now guaranteed a Tour card for the 12th consecutive season, and he expressed his delight to Sky Sports during the final-round coverage of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on Sunday.
"I'm fully relieved," said Storm, whose win at the Open de France in 2007 remains his only European Tour title. "It's been a bit of a rollercoaster couple of weeks, and I was fully aware of the situation regarding Patrick Reed and the fact he hadn't quite played his numbers.
"I was waiting to see if he had taken an invite to South Africa this week, but I got a call from the European Tour and it was a really nice phone call to take.
"When I got home from Portugal it was my son's birthday, so that helped to take my mind off of losing my card. But I received a lot of really nice messages of support, and I was just trying to focus on going to Q School.
"I needed to make sure I was still playing decent golf for that, but as things developed with Patrick, I was just praying it would go my way. So right now I'm incredibly relieved. Obviously I've been on the European Tour a long time and didn't want to lose my playing status, so it's nice now that I can look forward to the 2017 season."