Queensland’s Jake McLeod has recorded his best finish outside the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia with a superb final round of 67 resulting in a tie for second in the Asian Tour’s Royal Cup in Thailand.

Played at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club in Pattaya and won in convincing fashion by South African Justin Harding, McLeod had just the one bogey in the final round at the par-4 10th against four birdies to earn a cheque for more than $US30,000 and a considerable confidence boost ahead of the Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways at Natadola Bay this week.

Heading into the weekend it looked as though Jack Wilson would lead the Aussie assault following a blistering second round of 8-under 62 but as scoring became more difficult McLeod refused to flinch, his 3-under 67 bettered by just three players on Sunday.

McLeod has twice before finished second in a tournament, firstly in the 2016 South Pacific Open and then last year in the Vic Open, his latest strong result backing up top-10 finishes in both the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship and ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open earlier this year.

It also saw him move from 59th up to 40th on the Habitat for Humanity Standings to be the third highest ranked Australian behind Daniel Nisbet and Terry Pilkadaris.

In a field overflowing with Aussies Dale Brandt-Richards was two shots behind McLeod in a tie for sixth while Josh Younger was unable to maintain the pace he set early in the tournament, his final round of 2-over 72 seeing him drop to a tie for 14th along with Travis Smyth and Kiwi veteran Mark Brown.

Asian Tour stalwart David Gleeson defied the tough conditions to shoot 2-under 68 on Sunday to climb into a tie for 28th with Daniel Fox going one better, his 67 also vaulting him inside the top 30 on the leaderboard.

Wilson endured a difficult weekend to finish the four rounds at 1-over and tied for 42nd along with Kiwi Ben Campbell and Aussie pair Jordan Zunic and Michael Choi. Callan O’Reilly (T49), Todd Sinnott (T56), Terry Pilkadaris (T56), Matt Stieger (T70) and Andrew Martin (T70) were the other Australians to make the cut.

There wasn’t a traditional cut on the Japan Golf Tour this week as the first two rounds of the ISPS HANDA Matchplay Championship took place at the Hatoyama Country Club in Saitama.

Brad Kennedy, Matthew Griffin, David Bransdon, Anthony Quayle and Kiwi Michael Hendry lined up for the first round but after Quayle bowed out in Round 1 Kennedy, Griffin and Bransdon progressed to the third round that will be played in early September.