Pearce (38) had to finish in the top 20 of the Open to retain his Australasian Tour card and did exactly that, with a tie for 20th at the Royal Sydney course.
He completed his four rounds with a score of 4-under-par 284, which was 14 shots off the winner, Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland.
Pearce said he was happy with his performance and had a liking for the Australian Open.
''I needed to have a top 20 finish to retain my playing rights for next year, so there was a bit more pressure then I would have liked,'' he said.
''But I have played the Australian Opens for the past 10 years and made the cut every time. So it is a tournament which I like.''
It was his best finish in the tournament, with rounds of 72, 71, 71 and 70, and he took home prizemoney of A$13,328 (NZ$14,900).
Pearce said it had been a struggle at times this year after he broke his foot in a charity football match in late summer and was out for four months.
''I haven't actually played much golf this year. But I have been chipping away and I thought I played all right at the Australian Masters a few weeks ago.''
He finished 39th equal at the Masters in Melbourne.
For the next two months, Pearce would put his feet up and play no tournament golf, but in February he would look to play a few tournaments in Australia, including the Victorian PGA, Victorian Masters and the Queensland PGA.
He would then head to Queenstown to play at the New Zealand Open in late February, early March.
He was looking forward to playing at both the Hills and Millbrook.
After that there was the possibility of playing some events in China next year.
Pearce said the USPGA had got involved in running the China Tour and that could open up some opportunities, with possible links to the web.com tour.
He was working hard with his physio, Brett Woodley, to get his body right and felt that was paying dividends.
