Tristen Strydom rounded out a solid start to his European Challenge Tour adventure on Sunday with a one-under-par 69 in the final round of the D+D REAL Czech Challenge in the Czech Republic for a share of 15th.
Strydom, who won the season ending Tour Championship on the Sunshine Tour for his maiden victory, showed resilience as well as street-smarts as he kept every round under par and finished the week on six-under. That put him eight shots out of the play-off, which was won by Denmark’s Nicolai Kristensen over France’s Ugo Coussaud.
Strydom started his final round with a birdie, but dropped a shot immediately after that. He repeated that dose on five and six, and then made birdie on nine. He got it to two-under with a birdie on 12, but made a double-drop on the 14th to slip to level-par. He got back to red numbers with a final birdie on the 16th.
His performance takes him inside the top 10 on the Challenge Tour rankings, to ninth, behind the leader JC Ritchie.
Deon Germishuys also settled down well in his first overseas venture on the tour with a closing one-under 69 taking him to three-under for the week and a share of 34th.
Keenan Davidse also closed with a one-under 69 after making the cut to be one-over for the tournament and in a share of 53rd.
