It wasn’t the finish he wanted but Geoff Ogilvy showed signs of a return to form in finishing top Australian at the Career Builder Challenge in California.

The 2006 US Open winner has been struggling with his game for the past two years but playing 2017 on a one time only career money exemption seems to have given him plenty of motivation to turn things around.

A near miss at November’s Australian Open at Royal Sydney suggested the 40-year-old was on the comeback trail and while a Sunday 74 at La Quinta’s Stadium Course was disappointing there were plenty of positives in his first three rounds.

Scores of 67-69-68 saw Ogilvy start the final round in a share of 10^th and an outside chance of catching the leaders but he struggled from the outset with one dropped shot and no birdies on the front-9 and back-to-back bogeys to start his inward half.

A late birdie at the 16^th restored some faith for Ogilvy whose four day total of 10-under-par was good for T25.

While it will be mixed emotions for Ogilvy next best Australian Steven Bowditch will only be able to find positives in his first event of 2017.

The Queenslander made his first cut in five starts for the new season and a 6-under total for the 72 holes was easily his best since the Dean and Deluca Invitational in May last year.

A switch in clubs to a set from more than a decade ago seemed to do the trick for Bowditch who’s T57 would normally not be cause for celebration but in light of his 2016 is a big positive for the popular 33-year-old.

Aaron Baddeley was the last of the seven Australians in the field to survive the cut, a final round 78 dropping him 32 places down the leaderboard to T75.

Cameron Percy, Cameron Smith, John Senden and Brett Drewitt all missed the weekend’s play.