Brett Drewitt has opened his 2016 Web.com Tour campaign with a solid performance at the Panama Claro Championship, the 25-year-old the best of the three Australians who made the cut in the season opener.

Drewitt returned scores of 68-69-74-70 to finish 1-over-par for the week, good for a T41 result, and one better than veteran Steve Allan who was T47.

Bryden Macpherson was the third of the seven Australians who began the week to make the weekend and only a disappointing final round cost him a top 30 finish.

Macpherson endured a horror run on the secondary US Tour in 2015 but regained his confidence after returning the the PGA Tour China late in the year and winning the Order of Merit with two wins and four other top five finishes in just eight starts.

The former British Amateur champion played decent golf in the first three rounds in Panama to be just outside the top 30 beginning the final round but struggled on Sunday to fall back to T56.

Two bogies in his first three holes wasn’t the start he was looking for and things only got worse with two doubles also on his card by round’s end.

But the 25-year-old will take heart from his play over the first three rounds which, while not spectacular, was a marked improvement on the missed cut he made at the same event last year.

Defending champion Mathew Goggin was forced to withdraw in the first round with an elbow injury, a bitter disappointment for a player whose record at this tournament is extraordinary.

In four previous starts Goggin has two wins and a runner-up finish to go with a missed cut but at 2-over through eight holes and struggling he had little choice but to pull out.

Peter Lonard, who is using several starts on the Web.com tour to tune up for a tilt at the Champions Tour in 2017, missed the cut by a shot while Greg Chalmers, Oliver Goss and Scott Gardiner also had the weekend off.