HAMPSHIRE golfer Matt Blackey produced his best finish of the season in the Telefonica Madrid Open yesterday.

Blackey, from Hayling Island, scored a superb fourth-round 65 to finish just three shots behind winner Ricardo Gonzales of Argentina.

The sixth-placed finish confirmed Blackey's place on the European tour for next season.

Starting the day five under par, Blackey had an early setback with a bogey five on the 441-yard second hole. But he set things right with birdies on the seventh and eight holes and then launched into a blistering back nine. Blackey birdied the 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th holes to at one stage move to within a shot of the lead.

It was not such a good day for Blackey's south-coast colleagues, Southampton's Richard Bland and Gary Emerson of Salisbury.

Both had beaten the cut but needed finishes somewhere in the top 12 to avoid the necessity of a return to next month's tour school to try to retain their tour cards for next season.

Bland shot 73 to finish in tied 52nd spot while Emerson's 72 was only good enough for 62nd position.

Brokenhurst Manor's Martin LeMesurier, who will be on the tour next season after a superb campaign on the Challenge Tour, continued with his good form to fire a final round 68 to finish tied eighth in the Challenge Tour Grand Final at the Golf du Midoc club in France.

The tornament finished in a stunning play-off between Josi Manuel Carriles and Johan Edfors, with Carriles producing a wonderful seven iron approach to the first sudden death hole to snatch victory.

That was enough to propel the Spaniard into third place on the final Challenge Tour rankings for the season - with Edfors just pipping LeMesurier to take the crown of Challenge Tour Champion.