Seeking to make it successive wins by Aussies at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, the 41-year-old began the final round two strokes back.

Windy conditions were conducive to high drama on the back nine and when Baddeley birdied three of his first four holes after making the turn, he remained in contention for a first win since 2016.

But dropped shots at 15 and 18 cruelled his chances, his round of even-par 71 enough for a share of sixth at 16-under, three strokes back of winner Seamus Power (70).

It is Baddeley’s best result on the PGA TOUR since a tie for second at the Puerto Rico Open in February 2019 and guarantees him a place in the field for this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Mexico.

“The game’s not trending, the game’s there,” said Baddeley, who had to come through the Monday qualifier to play in Bermuda.

“It’s just a matter of getting starts. Great to have another start next week, ball-striker’s golf course, so I’m looking forward to that.

“If I finished with a couple of birdies, I could have been… but it was right there. It’s really, really close.”

It was a significant week in Bermuda too for Sydney’s Harrison Endycott.

The Round 1 leader thanks to a scorching nine-under 62, Endycott closed with a three-under 68 to secure the first top-10 finish of his rookie season on the PGA TOUR.

In a good week for the Australian 40-somethings, Brad Kennedy finished tied for fifth at the Japan Golf Tour’s Heiwa PGM Championship in Ibaraki.

Without a win in Japan since 2018, Kennedy began the final round one shot off the lead but was unable to mount a Sunday charge.

The 48-year-old Gold Coaster had four birdies and three bogeys in his round of one-under 69, finishing seven shots back of Rikuya Hoshino (63) in a share of fifth.

Kiwi Daniel Hillier led the Australasian charge with a tie for 12th at the DP World Tour Portugal Masters and the all-Australian Punch GC team came up just short at the LIV Golf season finale in Miami.

The No.11 seed at the start of the week, the Punch GC team of Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and captain Wade Ormsby won their quarter-final and semi-final matches to advance to the final four.

On the back of Smith’s brilliant seven-under 65 at Doral, Punch GC posted a combined score of six-under to finish just one back of the 4 Aces team led by Dustin Johnson.

Results

PGA TOUR
Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton, Bermuda
Winner Seamus Power  65-65-65-70—265           $US1.17m
T6          Aaron Baddeley 65-64-68-71—268           $227,500
10          Harrison Endycott           62-70-70-68—270           $177,125
T35        Cameron Percy  66-68-71-70—275           $29,683
T65        Greg Chalmers  66-70-76-73—285           $13,975

DP World Tour
Portugal Masters
Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, Vilamoura, Portugal
Winner Jordan Smith     62-67-62-63—254           €340,812.60
T12        Daniel Hillier (NZ)            65-68-68-67—268           €32,477.44
T18        Jason Scrivener 66-67-66-71—270           €22,809.94
T34        Maverick Antcliff             70-66-67-69—272           €13,498.85
T68        Scott Hend         67-67-71-75—280           €4,109.80

Japan Golf Tour
Heiwa PGM Championship
PGM Ishioka Golf Club, Ibaraki
Winner Rikuya Hoshino 63-68-64-63—258           ¥30m
T5          Brad Kennedy    65-67-64-69—265           ¥5.7m
T25        Matthew Griffin              68-68-68-67—271           ¥1.26m
T29        Brendan Jones  67-63-72-70—272           ¥1,023,750
T41        Dylan Perry        64-73-70-68—275           ¥600,000
T54        Michael Hendry (NZ)      67-67-73-71—278           ¥369,000
T62        Anthony Quayle              70-68-69-74—281           ¥339,000
MC        Andrew Evans   70-73—143

LIV Golf
Team Championship Miami
Trump National Doral, Miami, Florida
Winners             4 Aces GC           -7
2            Punch GC            -6