Starting the week outside the top-70 John Senden made a brave bid to continue in the FedEx Cup play-offs but came up just shy at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston leaving just three Australians to continue in the series.

Jason Day, Matt Jones and Steven Bowditch will take their place at the BMW Championship in two weeks time after Marc Leishman missed the cut to fall out of the top-70 and Senden stumbled at the final hole to also miss a chance at advancing.

It was a gutsy effort from Senden whose first round 76 looked to have ended his chances early but to his credit the Queenslander fought hard in round two to make the cut on the number.

He moved up the leader board with a brilliant third round of 4-under 67 and looked a good chance to keep his hopes of advancing alive until the 72nd hole of the tournament.

Needing a birdie at the par-5 18th at TPC Boston, Senden found the front greenside bunker in two and faced a straightforward splash shot to leave a birdie chance.

Having fought so hard Senden’s next shot was more than a little disappointing, a clumsy effort which rolled over the back of the green and led to a bogey and ended his season.

Starting the week in 81st position Senden finished in 73rd, fractionally outside the qualifying number.

Also disappointed was Marc Leishman whose fate was out of his own hands after he missed his third straight cut.

The Victorian, who played so well to be part of a play-off at The Open Championship in July, began the week in 61st and only needing to play the weekend to move on to next week but rounds of 72-75 was two shots more than he could afford.

Steven Bowditch also missed the cut and while it didn’t cost him a place in the next play-off event it did cruel his chances to be an automatic qualifier for next month’s Presidents Cup.

Only fractions separated Bowditch from the man holding down 10th spot, Danny Lee, but with the New Zealander making the cut Bowditch will now need to rely on a captain’s pick if he is to represent the Internationals in Korea.

The missed weekend also saw him drop from 20th to 22nd in the FedEx Cup standings and needing to play well at the BMW to remain in the top 30 and tee up at the TOUR Championship for the first time.

Matt Jones also has a chance to play his way to the finale at East Lake after finishing in the top five despite struggling in the final round.

Jones was just two shots behind 54-hole leader Henrik Stenson heading into Monday and after a birdie at the first looked likely to be in the mix at the end of the day.

But things went awry when the 35-year-old dropped five shots in the space of three holes from the 10th though he only dropped one spot on the leader board to finish T4.

Jones sits 33rd on the FedEx Cup points list and is a chance to play the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career but will need another high finish at the BMW Championship to get there.

The final Australian in the field was Jason Day who, understandably, couldn’t maintain the momentum of recent weeks though produced solid golf to finish T12.

Despite not playing his best, Day was under par three of the four rounds and will comfortably maintain top spot in the FedEx Cup rankings.

With a week’s break before the BMW in Chicago the Queenslander will have a chance to re-charge before a frantic push to become the first Australian to claim the $10 million bonus prize.