Aaron Baddeley’s best finish since January was a highlight for Australians overseas this week, with the Scottsdale-based Melburnian in good shape to play his way back to full PGA Tour status.

The 42-year-old Baddeley closed with a 67 at Colonial, equalling the day’s low round, to vault up to tied-21st at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas behind Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and picked up a cheque for more than $US600,000 in the process.

A four-time winner on tour, he has made the cut in 12 of 16 events this season playing on sponsors’ exemptions and qualifying, earning $US953,000 in prizemoney.

Baddeley has moved to 94th on the Fedex Cup points list needing to be inside the top 125 to secure his rights for 2024.

Otherwise it was mostly a quiet weekend for Aussies, with Min Woo Lee and Gabriela Ruffels both enhancing their chances of securing important playing rights for 2024.

Ruffels, who is the No. 1 player on the Epson Tour, finished tied-13th in Florida to hold on to her Order Of Merit lead, with the top 10 at season’s end graduating to the LPGA Tour in 2024. The former US Amateur champion is virtually secure already but another cheque will not help given that the season has a long stretch ahead.

Lee, the 24-year-old from Perth who is now a Special Temporary Member of the PGA TOUR, was steady in finishing tied-40th at the Schwab Challenge in Texas.

His focus now is to accumulate enough points (he currently has 190) to be ahead of the 125th-ranked player on the tour this season (currently 212 points), which would give him automatic rights to play on the US Tour in 2024.

Alternatively if he finished inside the top 15 on the DP World Tour points list (he is currently fifth) he would also move to the US Tour for 2024. Lee still has starts ahead in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and the US Open in Los Angeles to push his chances, with both majors counting towards points tallies on the US and DP World Tours.

Cameron Smith continued his strong form on LIV Golf in Washington, finishing inside the top 10 behind Harold Varner, and Dimi Papadatos finished tied-10th at the Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour, his second top-10 of the season.

Dylan Perry is another Australian showing up on the Japan Tour, finishing tied-19th in the lucrative Mizuno Open. Results

PGA TOUR Charles Schwab Challenge, Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas 1 - Emiliano Grillo (playoff) 67-65-72-68 – 272 $US1,566,000 T21 Aaron Baddeley 70-71-71-67 – 279 $601,876 T21 Ryan Fox (NZ) 71-71-69-72 – 279 $601,876 T40 Min Woo Lee 67-71-70-73 – 281 $231,503 MC Cam Davis 68-74 - 142 MC Lucas Herbert 70-73 – 143 MC Harrison Endycott 74-71 - 145

PGA Champions Tour

Kitchen Aid Senior PGA Championship, Texas 1 – Steve Stricker R$US630,000 T5 Steve Alker (NZ) 70-69-69-71 - 279 $115,933 T31 Mark Hensby 72-73-73-71 – 289 $20,583 T37 Richard Green 68-75-78-69 – 290 $13,512 T37 David McKenzie 72-75-69-74 – 290 $13,512 T49 Rod Pampling 75-70-75-72 - 292 $7,233 MC Michael Long (NZ) 76-74 – 150 MC Andre Stolz 75-75 – 150 MC Stuart Appleby 76-75 – 151 Michael Campbell (NZ) 77-75 – 152

LIV Golf Liv DC, Washington 1 – Harold Varner III 64-72-68 – 204 $US4 million T9 Cameron Smith 68-70-72 – 210 $425,000 T23 Matt Jones 73-72-69 – 214 $205,000 T35 Marc Leishman 73-72-72 – 217 $148,000 43 Jediah Morgan 73-74-74 – 221 $137,500

Korn Ferry Tour Knoxville Open, Tennessee 1 – Rico Hoey 64-71-66-65 – 266 $US180,000 T10 Dimi Papadatos 67-66-70-67 – 270 $21,441 T47 Brett Drewitt 69-69-69-68 – 275 $4400 MC Rhein Gibson 74-67 – 141

PGA Tour Latinoamerica Colombia Classic, Bucaramanga 1 – Walker Lee 66-66-65-64 – 261 $US31,500 T4 Charlie Hillier (NZ) 66-67-66-65 – 264 N/A 68 Denzel Ieremia (NZ) 67-70-81-67 – 285 N/A MC Harry Hillier (NZ) 72-66 – 138

LPGA Tour Bank of Hope LPGA Matchplay, Las Vegas T17 Karis Davidson $16,743 T56 Sarah Kemp $3906

Epson Tour Inova Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship, Florida 1 – Jiwon Jeon 66-73-70 – 209 $US30,000 T13 Gabriela Ruffels 71-74-71 – 216 $3084 T19 Amelia Garvey (NZ) 74-72-71 – 217 $2107 T33 Robyn Choi 72-75-71 – 218 $1512 T47 Hira Naveed 74-71-77 - 222 $924 T64 Sarah Jane Smith 73-77-76 – 226 $631 MC Cassie Porter 81-71 – 152

DP World Tour KLM Open, Netherlands 1 – Pablo Larrazabal 66-73-67-69 – 275 €316,649 T4 Daniel Hillier (NZ) 70-67-71-71 – 279 €66,682 MC Blake Windred 80-79 – 159

Japan Tour Mizuno Open, Okayama, Japan 1 – Kensai Hirata 67-71-67-66 – 271 (playoff) ¥16,000,000 T19 Dylan Perry 72-68-68-73 – 281 ¥837,333 T28 Brendan Jones 75-68-71-68 – 282 ¥525,000 MC Brad Kennedy 73-71 – 144 MC Anthony Quayle 77-70 - 147

Challenge Tour Copenhagen Challenge, Copenhagen, Denmark 1 – Matteo Mannassero 75-64-71-66 – 276 €40,000 T38 Jarryd Felton 71-75-71-73 – 290 €1500 T38 Jordan Zunic 75-70-70-75 – 290 €1500 MC Connor McKinney 76-73 – 149 MC Maverick Antcliff 79-80 – 159

Ladies European Tour Belgian Ladies Open, Belgium 1 – Patricia Schmidt 71-68-66 – 205 €45,000 T39 Momoka Kabori (NZ) 70-75-71 – 216 €1676 67 Whitney Hillier 74-72-74 – 220 €825 MC Kirsten Rudgeley 77-72 – 149 MC Wenyung Keh (NZ) 76-74 – 150 MC Hanee Song (NZ) 79-75 – 154