After an opening nine in which he couldn’t make birdie at all on Sunday, Jacques Blaauw made six birdies on his way home for a closing six-under-par 65 in the final round of the Challenge Tour’s at Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France.

That saw him climb nine places on the leaderboard to finish in a share of fifth at 10-under-par for the tournament, five shots behind the winner, Marcel Siem of Germany. Siem carded a closing 67 for edge Chile’s Hugo Leon by one stroke.

If Blaauw is to have any regrets about the tournament, it will be the quadruple-bogey eight on the 15^th hole in the first round that will haunt him. He birdied the hole in the final round, and, had he done the same in the opening round, and played all the other holes in exactly the same way he did, he would have been level with Siem in the end.

As it is, his 65 was the joint lowest round of the final day, together with the 65 of Santiago Tarrio of Spain, who finished level with him for the week. Blaauw moved into the top 20 of the Challenge Tour rankings with his performance, from 24^th to 16^th.

While he would prefer to be playing in the Open Championship next week, he will be glad to grasp the opportunity of riding his good form in the Euram Bank Open in Austria which will be played at the same time as the major championship.

Behind Blaauw in France, Hennie du Plessis rounded off a good week with a closing three-under 68 to finish in a share of 11^th and climb two places in the Challenge Tour rankings to 44^th. Oliver Bekker stays in the top 10 of the rankings, although he drops one to ninth, after his two-under 69 took him to two-under for the tournament and a share of 28^th. Jacques Kruyswijk signed for a closing one-over 72 to finish in a share of 35^th, and Jayden Schaper’s level-par 71 saw him finish in 56^th at three-over.