Lucas Herbert is backing himself to play his way back into a fully fledged PGA Tour membership after "struggling" to just one top-10 finish this year.

The 27-year-old dropped to 143rd on the FedEx Fall rankings, with only the top 125 earning Tour cards for 2024.

He'll still command a spot at most US events thanks to his 2021 Bermuda Championship title, with only the smaller-field Signature Events off limits to the Victorian.

"I obviously won't get into some of the bigger events as of right now but I can play my way into a few of them, so that's the plan," Herbert, who made 13 of 20 cuts this year, said.

"My, I guess philosophy, my whole career has just been play better golf and you get more opportunities to play bigger events.

"So that doesn't change.

"I can only play the tournaments that are in front of me. I just have to play those really well."

That starts again on Thursday at the Australian PGA Championship at Brisbane's Royal Queensland.

A strong field headed by defending champion Cameron Smith means Herbert doesn't "expect to turn up here and just waltz into a top five without doing the work".

"I'm struggling a little bit at the moment, to be honest.

"(An) up and down year.

"It's been a little frustrating the last few weeks; the fall season hasn't been too kind to me.

"I've played some reasonable golf and shot some scores in the mid-teens, under par and not gotten any better than 30th as a result.

"Just keep chipping away at it, hopefully change it round going over Christmas, into the New Year."