Tauranga's Josh Geary has finished well at the Australian PGA Championship held on the Gold Coast.

He was one of the two best-performed New Zealanders at the event won by Australian Cameron Smith on Sunday.

Geary finished on three-under in a tie for 19th alongside 12 other golfers including fellow Kiwi Gareth Paddison. Mark Brown finished in a tie for 68^th with another Tauranga golfer Kieran Muir missing the cut.

Geary shot a final round three-under 69 to go with opening rounds of 72, 71 and 73 for a top 20 finish.

The result is a positive ending to 2018 for Geary after a year that started with such high hopes. He won his European Tour Card through the China Tour in 2017 and earned $170,000, making eight cuts in 22 events.

But it was not enough for the 34-year-old to keep his place on the rich European Tour.

Geary went back to qualifying school in November, needing to finish inside the top 25 at the gruelling six round tournament held in Tarragona, Spain

Approaching the last hole without the help of a scoreboard, Geary believed he needed a birdie to qualify so played the hole aggressively, leading to a one-over bogey.

In reality, Geary only needed a par to qualify so would have played the hole conservatively had he known that.

He was shattered to miss out on the final qualifying place by a single shot.

But resilience has always been a big part of the makeup of the talented golfer, who learned the game at the nine-hole Otumoetai Golf Club. Giving up has never entered his mind despite plenty of setbacks over the years.

Geary will play on the second-tier Challenge Tour in 2019 but because he finished just outside the qualifiers is likely be given up to 10 starts on the main European Tour later in the season.

Making the most of those opportunities will be key to him having another chance to prove himself against the world's best golfers.