Spain’s Nacho Elvira and France’s Clément Berardo were both pleased to record career-best European Tour finishes despite narrowly missing out on victory at the Trophée Hassan II.
Elvira finally succumbed to Jeunghun Wang’s sensational putting at the second extra hole, while Berardo – who led for the bulk of the final round – came up one short to tie for third with England’s Robert Rock.
The 29 year old Elvira won three times on the Challenge Tour last season to regain his European Tour card, and despite being pipped to a first victory his 259,150 Race to Dubai points should be enough to keep him on tour in 2017.
“It’s been a tough day honestly,” said Elvira. “It rained through 13 or 14 holes throughout the morning but I was happy the way I handled it.
“I’ve done as good a job as I can today. I tried to play shot-by-shot and hole-by-hole because patience is key today.”
Berardo had chipped in en route to coming through Qualifying School and that is becoming a theme of his rookie campaign as he followed a chip-in on 13 yesterday with one for birdie at the fourth during the final round.
And the 29-year-old was pleased with his week’s work in Morocco after gaining some invaluable experience of being in contention down the stretch.
“I saved lots of pars with really good putts so I guess it’s fair,” he said.
“When you’re leader and you have four or five holes to play you think you can do better. I missed a few at the end but I guess it’s normal.”
