A brilliant final nine holes at Celtic Manor rocketed first year Professional Nathan Holman into the top 20 in just his third European Tour start at the Wales Open at the weekend.

Holman, playing on a sponsor’s invitation, reeled off five birdies over the back nine on Sunday to shoot his best round of the week and jump to a share of 17th.

His 6-under 65 was bettered by only one player on the final day and saw the 23-year-old pick up a cheque for €28,138.

Holman opened with three consecutive rounds of 1-under 70 to sit mid-field after 54 holes and looked likely to slip further after making bogey at his opening hole Sunday.

But he regrouped with two birdies to make the turn 1-under for the day before the fireworks of the last nine holes.

The Victorian native missed the cut in both his previous European Tour appearances, the 2013 Perth International and last month’s Czech Masters.

Wade Ormsby was the only other Australian to make the cut this week finishing in a share of 50th place after a 1-over-par final round.

Brett Rumford’s struggles continued with his 11th mised cut in 20 starts this year.

Meanwhile, Terry Pilkadaris’ bid to climb into the European Challenge Tour’s top 15 money winners and earn a card on the main Tour next year took a hit with a horror weekend at the Kazakhstan Open.

The 31-year-old, who has split his time between the Asian and Challenge Tours this year, struggled over the back nine in each of the last two rounds of the secondary Tour’s richest event.

He took 43 strokes to negotiate the back nine on Saturday and 42 on Sunday to shoot rounds of 77-78 and slip to last place in the field.

Having been as high as 19th place on the money list earlier in the year Pilkadaris now lies in 39th position with only the op 45 assured of playing privileges next year.

Sydney’s Scott Arnold, also a regular on the challenge Tour this year, missed the cut this week and has dropped to 76th on the money list.

Article written by Rod Morri.