An impressive top-10 finish at the Puerto Rico Open has Aaron Baddeley on track to gain back his PGA TOUR card, the three time TOUR winner now inside the top-80 on the FedEx Cup standings.

Baddeley, playing on limited status in 2016 after failing to keep his card for the first time since 2003, has rededicated himself to the game and the results are showing.

In 11 starts for the new wraparound season Baddeley has posted three top 10’s and missed just three cuts, a stark contrast to a 2015 which saw just one top 10 in 25 events.

Rounds of 66-72-69-72 saw Baddeley to a T8 finish and lifted him from 91st in the season long points race to 76th.

The top 125 at season’s end are guaranteed playing rights for the following season and Baddeley is a long way towards achieving that goal already.

The Victorian was one of eight Australians to tee up in the opposite field event, four making the cut.

Rod Pampling and Cameron Percy, also both with limited playing opportunities this year, finished T26 while Cameron Smith struggled on Sunday and fell from inside the top-20 to T54.

Smith will take some encouragement from his first three days’ play, though, as he prepares to play his first US Masters in two weeks’ time.

With 13 birdies and an eagle for the week the 22-year-old gained plenty of strokes but will need to minimise mistakes if he is to contend at Augusta National.

Greg Chalmers, Rhein Gibson, Robert Allenby and Jarrod Lyle all missed the weekend, Chalmers particularly disappointed after a close call on the secondary Web.com Tour last week.

An opening round 74 proved too much to overcome for the left hander and he missed the cut by two shots.

Jarrod Lyle will also be disappointed with his form, an encouraging opening round of 1-under 71 undone by a disastrous second round 79.

Lyle now has just three events remaining on his medical extension and needs to amass a further $209,000 to earn back a spot on the TOUR.