PGA Tour veteran Aaron Baddeley has made an auspicious start to his ‘new normal’ with a tie for fourth in the season-opening Safeway Open at the Silverado Resort and Spa in California’s Napa Valley.

Ultimately finishing one shot out of the playoff won by Kevin Tway over Ryan Moore and Emirates Australian Open headliner Brandt Snedeker, Baddeley now has something to build from as he endeavours to put together as strong a schedule as he can.

Without a PGA Tour card for the first time since 2002, Baddeley fronted up and topped Monday qualifying simply to earn his place in the Safeway Open field.

A 5-under 67 in the second round propelled the 37-year-old up toward the top of the leaderboard and trailed Brandt Snedeker by six shots starting Round 4 in his attempt to become the first Monday qualifier to win a PGA Tour event since Arjun Atwal in 2010.

A bomb from close to 50 feet delivered a confidence-boosting birdie at the first and he continued his surge with a birdie from just outside 20 feet at the par-4 fourth.

An up-and-down from the back of the par-5 ninth allowed Baddeley to make the turn at 3-under and when Snedeker dropped shots at 10, 11 and 12 he had drawn to within one of the lead.

Finding the greenside bunker saw Baddeley make bogey at the par-4 12th and missed birdie chances at 15 and 17 kept him out of the three-man playoff, a birdie at the last securing his best PGA Tour finish since his win at the Barbasol Championship in July 2016.

Baddeley’s performance not only netted him a cheque for $241,280 and 104 FedEx Cup points but earned him a place in the field in the next open event, likely to be the Sanderson Farms Championship at Jackson, Mississippi in a fortnight’s time.

Baddeley wasn’t the only Aussie to take advantage of Monday qualifying with Sydney’s Brett Drewitt putting his honeymoon on hold in order to register a tie for 25th, his best finish on the PGA Tour.

In his first tournament as a full member of the PGA Tour Cameron Davis produced a brilliant final round of 68 in blustery conditions to vault 39 places up the leaderboard and finish in a tie for 17th.

As others struggled Davis took the front nine apart, a blistering tee shot of 365 yards setting up eagle at the par-5 fifth followed by birdies at the sixth, eighth and ninth holes to make the turn in 33.

New Zealand’s Danny Lee continued the form he showed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs to start the 2018-2019 PGA Tour season with a top 10 result, another boost ahead of his trip to Melbourne next month to partner Ryan Fox at the World Cup of Golf.

John Senden was the only other Australian to make it to the weekend but was eliminated after the third-round cut following a 2-over 74.