WILTSHIRE’S Jordan Smith struck a final round of 65 to finish third at the European Tour’s Made in HimmerLand tournament in Denmark last week.

The 28-year-old finished six shots of back of defending champion, Bernd Wiesberger – the man who also won at the Danish event the last time it was played in 2019.

An ever-improving Smith pocketed just over 70,000 euros for his week’s work and rose 40 places in the Race to Dubai rankings, leaving him in 59th spot midway through the European Tour season.

A fantastic finish means Smith has improved on his previous result in each of his last five European Tour events ahead of this weekend’s Porsche European Open – a tournament that gave the Bowood Golf Club member his lone professional victory back in 2017.

The world number 207 was always chasing the red-hot Wiesberger, and he made an decent fist of clawing back the difference early on.

Three consecutive pars opened up his final round before Smith chained together birdies on holes four and five to move from nine under par to 11 under through five holes.

More pars followed on holes six and seven before Smith bagged another birdie on the second par five of his front nine to go out in 33.

With Austria’s Wiesberger and Italy’s Guido Migliozzi knocking down birdies for fun, England’s Smith tripped up on the 10th with his only bogey of the day.

A costly four on the par three threatened to stall all of the 28-year-old’s momentum, however, Smith snatched a shot back straight away at the final par five on the course. Par on 12 was expected before consecutive birdies on 13 and 14 pushed Smith onto 14 under par.

That was never likely to be enough as Wiesberger continued to charge on down the easier final stretch of holes, and Smith managed just one further birdie as he shared third with countryman, Richard Bland and Australian, Jason Scrivener.

Smith will enter this weekend’s Porsche European Open high on confidence and hopeful that he can repeat his heroics from 2017.

He will have to do it in a field full of big names though, with home favourite Martin Kaymer joining the German event as well as PGA Tour star Abraham Ancer, defending champion Paul Casey, and multiple Ryder Cup winner, Henrik Stenson.

The tournament is set to take place across three days starting on Saturday, June 5.