After a miserable 2015 Aaron Baddeley has got his 2016 season off to a
flying start with a top five finish in just his second tournament of the
year.

Baddeley lost his card at the end of last season for the first time since 2003 but looks to be making the most of limited playing opportunities early in the new season as he tries to play his way back to the PGA TOUR.

A brilliant opening round of 8-under 64 set up the week at the Sanderson Farms tournament in Mississippi, Baddeley going on to deal well with several weather delays which forced a Monday finish.

With rounds of 64-73-67-68 the three time TOUR winner posted a 16-under total for the four days and by finishing T4 earns a start at next week’s OHL Classic in Mayakoba, Mexico.

His final round 68 was one of the best of the day on a golf course made difficult by wet conditions, the Victorian just two shots shy of the eventual wining total of 18-under.

Cameron Percy, who also lost his PGA TOUR card at the end of the season, will be pleased with his performance after finishing T15 on the back of some consistent golf.

Percy returned scores of 68-70-68-70 to be 12-under for the week and posted his best result since a T10 at the AT&T event in Texas in May.

Jarrod Lyle was the only other Australian to make the cut, a final round 74 a disappointing way to finish an otherwise encouraging week.

This was the Victorian’s second of 10 available starts for the year as part of his major medical extension and after missing the cut at the Fry’s.com Open he will be pleased to have cashed a cheque.

Lyle still needs to amass almost US$200,000 to get back the card he lost when a second bout of leukemia struck in 2012 and he has just eight starts left to do it.

Statistics suggest it is the flat stick which needs to improve for the Victorian, a fact he himself acknowledged on his blog before returning to the US this year.

Robert Allenby and Rhein Gibson missed the cut in Mississippi while Rod Pampling was listed as a withdrawal after failing to complete his second round.

Pampling was two shots outside the cut line with one hole remaining when play was suspended in the second round and didn’t return to the course to complete the score.