KUALA LUMPUR: Gavin Kyle Green claimed the best finish of his young career on European soil with a second runner-up finish at the D+D Real Czech Masters on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Malaysian returned with a bogey-free round highlighted by three birdies to sign for a closing 69 at the Albatross Golf Resort.

He finished off a brilliant campaign on a 17-under-par 271 total, five strokes behind Italy’s Andrea Pavan at the Albatross Golf Resort.

“I played solid today and gave myself a lot of looks, unfortunately some putts didn’t drop on the back nine. I made some putts in the middle but it is what it is and it was a very positive week,” said Green, who had held a share of the opening round lead and took the halfway lead on his own.

His best finish on the European Tour came at the Hero Indian Open in 2017, when he finished outright second in the event co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour.

“I’m really happy and proud with how I handled myself out there. It was fun playing with Scott (Jamieson), we both had no dropped shots. I knew I had a bit of a cushion in third place so I wanted to go for the pin at 18th and it came up a little short. I hit a really good putt and it was nice to finish like that.”

The rookie moved up to 80th on the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex and was delighted with his week’s work as he gets ever closer to retaining his playing privileges for 2019.

“I’m close to keeping my card so it’s definitely positive. There are a couple more events coming up so hopefully I can have a couple of good finishes and I’ll be happy.