Chris Wood yesterday secured his European Tour card for next season after finishing tenth in the Celtic Manor Wales Open.

After a whirlwind April and May in which the Nailsea golfer made two top-ten finishes and amassed an impressive total of nearly £200,000, Wood needed another £15,000 to secure a place on the lucrative tour.

And yesterday's round of 69 saw Wood finish four under par to take away another healthy £35,000 pay cheque and that all important prize – his tour card.

He said: "That really was a relief to get the round finished in more ways than one. It means that I've secured my card for next year which was always the goal in my rookie year.

"It's a great feeling and it means that I can really enjoy my next two weeks off. I was always planning to have a couple of weeks off now and knowing I'm guaranteed being on the Tour next year is an added bonus."

Wood, 21, played himself into contention for the third tournament running with a one-under par round of 70 on the rain-delayed Saturday – when many of those above him on the leaderboard found the going too tough.

Last night he revealed the secret of his success on Saturday had been the fact he had been bowling to idle away the hours while the course was being brought back into play.

He said: "I knew that we were going to be out of action for five or six hours and so my dad, coach and me went bowling.

"It really relaxed me and took my mind off the day – and I even took the money from them which was even better.

"Throughout the whole week I have had tremendous support from back home. It seems that I've had more people following my games than the leaders.

"It has been fantastic and it has really spurred me on and I've really appreciated their coming out in such conditions."

Wood's third consecutive top-ten finish comes after tying tenth at the Irish Open and fifth at the European Open.

He said: "I putted well all week and holed some really big putts all day today. The first nine, nothing really went for me and at the turn I found myself two down.

"But it is amazing what a good shot can do for you and my tee shot on the tenth was really good and knocking in the birdie just turned my day around.

"The tenth has been good for me all week and the furthest I have been from the hole has been five feet. The eleventh too has been good for me having birdied it on all four days."

The winner was little known Dane Jeppe Huldahl ranked 377th in the world, who led going into the final round and kept his nerve to win by a shot from former Ryder Cup player, Niclas Fasth.

The 26-year-old from Copenhagen took the first prize of £310,000 to dwarf his previous European Tour prize of £9,000 when he tied for 24th place in the Russian Open in 2007.