Bryce Easton closed with a one-under-par 71 on Sunday to finish in a share of seventh in the Challenge Tour’s B-NL Challenge Trophy in Belgium.
He made three birdies and two bogeys to go with his first three rounds of 70-65-66 and rounded out the week at 16-under-par for the tournament. That put him four strokes behind the winner Alexander Knappe of Germany, who won his second Challenge Tour title of the season after he took the Dimension Data Pro-Am in South Africa in February.
Knappe closed with a four-under-par 68 to hold off Mikael Lindberg of Sweden by one stroke, and England’s Nathan Kinsey was third on 18-under-par.
Easton climbed nine places on the Road to Mallorca rankings to 38th, and he needs some more good performances in the remaining five tournaments ahead of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final on November to get into the top 20 and earn his way onto the DP World Tour.
Behind him, Deon Germishuys closed with a two-under-par 70 to climb into the top 30. He shared 24th at 12-under-par, and climbed to 21st on the Road to Mallorca rankings. That makes him the second-highest ranked South African behind JC Ritchie who is in 10th.