South Africa’s George Coetzee finished in a tie for third at the Barclays Scottish Open with rounds of 66 69 67 in the rain-shortened event on Sunday.
Coetzee’s 14 under par total for the 54 hole event was five behind world number one Englishman Luke Donald who extended his lead at the top of the world rankings.
Coetzee, who recently qualified for the British Open in a qualifying event, has made huge improvements this year and is now ranked 126th in the world after his second third place finish of the season.
He also finished tie third at the BMW International Open in Munich two weeks ago.
Rain and thunder meant players were only able to complete their third round on Sunday and organisers made the decision to cut the tournament to three rounds.
The South African began his final round on nine under par two behind the lead and seven players ahead of him on the leaderboard.
Coetzee got off to a bad start with a double bogey on his first hole and made his way to a one over opening nine.
Coming home, he put together six birdies including three in a row to finish his round five under par and vault himself up into a share of third with no player threatening Donald’s lead.
Retief Goosen finished on 11 under in a tie for 14th for the tournament a shot behind Coetzee, while Ernie Els finished a further shot adrift in a tie for 25th.
While The Big Easy signed for three good rounds, his putting still seems to be troubling him and is taking time to adjust to using a belly-putter.
It was the 24-year-old Coetzee’s second third place finish of the season having secured his playing privileges when he earned his European tour card in the qualifying school last year.
He currently lies 37th on the Race to Dubai with earnings of €406 621 — the season-long money list — and is only one position behind Els.
Louis Oosthuizen is in 26th, Goosen 18th, Thomas Aiken 12th and Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel in second. — Sapa