This week around the globe for Kiwi golfers

Steven Alker. Photo / Getty Images.

Three Kiwi golfers sit firmly inside the top 25 players on the Web.com Tour money list and are looking to gain automatic qualification for next season's PGA Tour.

Tim Wilkinson is in eighth place, Danny Lee is in ninth and Steven Alker is in 21st.

They will continue their charge for the PGA Tour tonight (thurs, NZT) at the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho. The Web.com Tour has reported that Wilkinson and Lee are already on their way to the PGA Tour.

Projecting a benchmark of US$142,000 to stand safe, 11 players can join leader Michael Putnam in eyeing the PGA Tour's fall start - Edward Loar, Chesson Hadley, Ben Martin, Alex Aragon, Will Wilcox, Tim Wilkinson ($182,646), Danny Lee ($162,463), Benjamin Alvarado, Brendon Todd, Kevin Kisner and Jim Renner.

The benchmark is based on an average of $6,750 per scheduled event, a ratio that has held fairly steady for the past four men to finish No 25.

Of that top 11 players all but Wilkinson, Lee and Renner have won events this year. Both Wilkinson and Lee have produced a half-dozen top-15 finishes.

"Winning's still a goal,'' Wilkinson said. ``It'll be very difficult to win the money list without winning.''

Finishing No. 1 on the money list brings two added perks - the top spot in the Web.com graduating class, exempt from the quarterly reshuffle in priority status, as well as a berth in The Players Championship.

Alker, who won the Utah Championship two weeks ago, is currently on US$127,116 and likely needs another $15,000 to secure his place on the PGA Tour.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, Michael Campbell will look to get his season back on track at the Russian Open.

Campbell, who has missed the cut in his three previous events to be 171st on the Race to Dubai Standings, is playing the first two rounds alongside England's Robert Rock and India's Jeev Milka Singh.

The former US Open champion is playing the Russian Open for the first time. He began the year well with two top-20 finishes in the United Arab Emirates but has struggled since with a 74th at the Nordea Masters his best result since January.

In Scotland, world No 1 amateur Lydia Ko will play at the Home of Golf, St Andrews, for the first time when she tees it up next week in the women's British Open.

The 16-year-old from the Gulf Harbour Country Club finished tied seventh last week at the Marathon Classic in Ohio to claim her seventh top-10 finish of the year.

She returns to the British Open after finishing as the leading amateur in 2012. Ko has finished leading amateur in four out her five majors (she was runner-up in the amateur honours in the 2013 US Open).

Ko has never missed the cut in 22 pro events and has climbed to a world ranking of 17.

She will get familiar with the Old Course in Scotland in the next few days ahead of the year's fourth major.