There was no Australian winner at the Shell Houston Open but Aaron Baddeley had a small personal victory when he posted his best result of 2017 in leading home the Australian contingent.

The two-time Australian Open winner signed for a final round 72 to finish the week 7-under-par and T15, his best since a T10 at the CIMB Classic in October last year.

Baddeley broke a run of four straight missed cuts with a mid-field finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and continued his improvement at the Golf Club of Houston, encouraging signs ahead of his next start at the RBC Heritage Classic where he is a former winner.

Also taking heart from some improved play in Houston will be 2006 US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy who broke a streak of three missed cuts with his T23 finish.

After opening strong with a 4-under 68 Ogilvy stumbled on day two with a 74 but solid weekend rounds of 72-69 suggest his game is in good shape.

2014 champion Matt Jones was the last of the Australians to make the cut and played consistent though unspectacular golf for the week.

Jones, with limited playing status in 2017, needs to make the most of his opportunities and while pleased to play all four days will be less so with a T49 finish.

Seven of the 10 Australians who began the week missed the weekend’s play, the most surprising Adam Scott.

The only one of the 10 to be playing this week’s Masters, Scott returned from a three week break to tee up in Houston for the first time since 2010 and opened well with a 4-under 68.

But a cold putter on day two saw Scott slump to a 5-over 77 and a missed cut though the 2013 Masters champion seemed unperturbed by the performance.

“It was pretty disappointing after a fairly solid day yesterday,” he said.

“But, one of those days. Hopefully I can just throw it away and move on to the next week, which is exciting.

“Things may work out as good as they can considering it’s a missed cut. I think I saw enough out there, I got some time on the range today and tomorrow, to really come up with my plan for what I’m going to do next week.

“But you know, pretty off day and poor focus on the golf course. So, hopefully that’s out of the way.”

Greg Chalmers, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Cameron Smith, Steven Bowditch and John Senden were the other Australians to miss the cut.