Stuart Appleby’s gusty play in Nevada didn’t deliver a 10^th PGA TOUR title but it has given the 46-year-old a new lease on life heading to the 2018 season.

The veteran’s T4 finish has all but assured him a place in the upcoming Web.com Tour finals series and the chance to compete for one of 25 PGA TOUR cards for 2018.

Appleby started the week outside the top 200 on the FedEx Cup standings but has now moved to 189^th, those finishing 126^th to 200^th eligible for the four tournament Series next month.

Appleby only needs to maintain his place through the final event of the PGA TOUR season, the Wyndham Championship in two weeks’ time, to tee up for a place on the 2018 TOUR.

A final round of nine points in the modified stableford scoring system saw Appleby finish with 41 points for the week, three points out of a playoff between Chris Stroud, Richy Werenski and Greg Owen.

A final hole eagle would have given Appleby the title but after hitting a perfect drive at the par-5 the siren sounded to suspend play because of the threat of lightning in the area.

A 45-minute wait followed before the final groups were able to complete the last hole, Appleby eventually only able to make par.

Defending champion Greg Chalmers gave a good account of himself to finish T18, four back nine birdies lifting him 13 places up the leaderboard on Sunday.

Brett Drewitt was next best of the Australians at T45, Geoff Ogilvy, Peter Lonard and Curtis Luck all sharing 54^th with Matt Jones T59 and Aaron Baddeley 64^th alone.

Ogilvy’s result saw him slip five places in the FedEx Cup standings and at 15^th he is now in a precarious position to keep his card for 2018.

Cameron Percy, Robert Allenby and Steven Bowditch all missed the cut, Percy dropping to 140^th in the FedEx Cup and, along with Matt Jones, needing something special at the Wyndham tournament to climb back inside the top 125.