It was a bitter sweet ending to the HNA Open de France for New Zealand’s Ryan Fox who stormed into sixth place with a final round 67 but narrowly missed earning a spot at the upcoming Open Championship.

Only four players bettered Fox’s Sunday score, the 30-year-old jumping from T16 to outright sixth and cashing the biggest cheque of his career along the way.

With three spots on offer at Le Golf National to players inside the top-10 but not otherwise qualified, Fox looked on track to earn a berth at Royal Birkdale late Sunday but overnight co-leader Alexander Bjork claimed the spot.

The Swede was tied with Fox at 7-under heading to the 18th tee and made a birdie though a par would have been good enough had they finished at the same score as Bjork had the higher world ranking.

Despite that disappointment Fox will be delighted with his play after a streak of missed cuts through April and May had him languishing at 102nd in the Race to Dubai rankings.

His cheque for more than €215,000 is the biggest of his career and moves him up to 49th on the season long race and now a likely starter at the end of year Finals Series.

Fox was easily the best of the Australasians in France though Scott Hend also made a significant move Sunday.

The Queenslander improved on his previous best finish of T56 at the tournament, a Sunday round of 2-under 69 jumping him 17 places up the standings to T32.

It was an encouraging week for Hend who opened with decent rounds of 69-70 but slipped down the standings with a Saturday 77.

Jason Scrivener was the only other Australian to play the weekend, steady rounds of 73-69-72-72 seeing him into a share of 38th at 2-over for the week.

Andrew Dodt missed the cut by the narrowest of margins at 2-over for the opening 36 holes, Brett Rumford a stroke further back after a second round 75.

Marcus Fraser, Sam Brazel and Wade Ormsby all finished well outside the number.