Stuart Appleby finished off a positive week in style at the Valero Texas Open after the nine-time TOUR winner fired his third sub-par round for the week to finish inside the top-25.

Appleby has shown flashes of brilliance this year but struggled with consistency and will be pleased to bounce back and play all four rounds after firing 69-79 to miss the cut at last week’s RBC Heritage tournament in South Carolina.

Playing 2016 on a major medical extension following back surgery last February, Appleby needs some good results to keep his playing privileges for 2017 and small improvements from here will go a long way towards achieving that goal.

His 6-under total was good for a T21 finish, the pick of the 10 Australians who started the week.

Only three of those who teed up Thursday survived the 36-hole cut with Aaron Baddeley and Matt Jones finishing T29 and T60 respectively.

It was another solid performance from Baddeley whose Sunday 74 was a big disappointment after a third round 66 put him on the fringes of contention.

Teeing off Sunday the Victorian was T12 and on track for his fifth top-10 result of the year but breezy conditions made scoring difficult and he succumbed by not making a single birdie over the final 18.

For Jones, the Texas Open was the continuation of an indifferent year which has seen him miss six cuts and post just one top-25 finish.

Putting was the issue for the reigning Australian Open champion this week, his final Strokes Gained statistic -0.825 meaning he gave up almost a shot per round to the field on the greens.

The remaining Australians in the field found the going tough with John Senden, Geoff Ogilvy, Rhein Gibson and Rod Pampling all missing the cut by two shots.

Rookie Ryan Ruffels finished 5-over for the week and missed by four shots, once again big mistakes proving fatal to his scores.

Despite making eight birdies in the first two rounds, the 17-year-old gave back six shots in three holes with two double bogeys in the first round and another in the second.

Coupled with seven bogeys it was too much to overcome at this level but all important lessons for a career that has many years yet to play out.

Greg Chalmers and Cameron Percy also missed the weekend, finishing a shot further back than Ruffels.