A tenacious back nine by Sydney’s Jamie Arnold has averted a disastrous finish to the Web.com Tour’s Lincoln Land Charity Championship in Illinois.

Arnold began the final round inside the top 20 but struggled on the outward nine with three dropped shots against a lone birdie to tumble down the leaderboard.

But the 34-year-old staged a brave fight back on the inward journey with four birdies and despite a disappointing bogey at the par-3 17^th shot under par for the day to limit the damage.

Despite slipping five places to T23 it was an impressive performance for a player who struggled to find his feet early in his rookie season.

Arnold missed five cuts in his first six starts on the secondary circuit but has been steady since with just one missed weekend in his last seven tournaments.

Robert Allenby fired the best round of the Australians Sunday, his 3-under 68 jumping him 23 places up the leaderboard to T28 at 9-under for the week and one behind Arnold.

Rhein Gibson (T38), Steve Allan (T63) and Peter Lonard (T76) were the other Australians to make the cut, Michael Sim and Mark Hensby both missing the weekend.