Richard Mansell moving into World Tour’s top 100

The Burntwood ace is projected to rise to 91st in the standings following a ninth-place finish at Bernardus Golf, Cromvoirt.

He closed an excellent four days’ work in the Netherlands with a three-under-par round of 69 – following efforts of 68, 71 and 73.

That left him on seven under par overall – six shots behind the co-leaders Victor Perez and Ryan Fox, who had to be separated by a play-off.

It is the second year in a row Mansell has enjoyed his time at the Dutch Open – following on from s sixth place 12 months ago.

He tweeted: “All smiles in the Netherlands for the Dutch Open this week. Ninth-place finish after a tough four days in the wind. Bernardus Golf was an absolute treat again. All eyes now on to Hamburg for the Porsche European Open.”

Meanwhile, Perez hailed ‘a bit of magic’ after defying the odds to beat Fox on the fourth hole of a sudden-death play-off to win the tournament.

“There’s a fair amount of fortune, I’ve got to be honest with myself, holing all those long putts in the play-off,” Perez said. “It’s hard to put into words because it’s a long day and Ryan was flying for a while. We didn’t even really think we had a chance.

“Coming down 16 I knew I probably had to birdie the last three and James (his caddie) told me don’t look up at the leaderboard. I holed the putt on 17 and the play-off was just a bit of magic. I just tried to focus on me all day – that’s all I can do. I was trying keep a champion mindset and hit good shots and the chips were going to fall where they fall.

“It’s almost impossible to predict what’s going to happen in golf, guys come out of nowhere and win tournaments, guys take huge leads. You just have to focus on you and not look at the boards and I was just fortunate to fall on the good side today.”

Perez, Fox and Adrian Meronk – who finished a shot outside the play-off – secured the three places on offer at St Andrews for the 150th Open Championship via the Open qualifying series.

Meronk’s closing 68 included a remarkable par save on the eighth, the Pole taking off his shoes and socks to wade into the water surrounding the green.

Meronk did well to splash his second shot on to the green and then holed from 45 feet for an unlikely three.

England’s Matt Wallace, who began the day tied for the lead with Perez, carded a closing 72 to share fifth place with Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg.