Michael Stewart has his eye on the second-tier Challenge Tour next

-20 A Meronk (Pol); -18 C Jarvis (SA), N Norgaard (Den); -17 M Stewart (Sco), T Fleetwood (Eng); -16 R MacIntyre (Sco), B Koepka (US)

Selected others: -13 C Syme (Sco); -12 S Bairstow (Eng), C Hill (Sco); -12 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), M Jordan (Eng); -11 D Law (Sco), R Mansell (Eng); -9 P Harrington (Ire), A Fitzpatrick (Eng), S Jamieson (Sco), C Adam (Sco), E Walker (Sco)

On Wednesday, Michael Stewart earned £2,500 for finishing runner-up in the Tartan Pro Tour event at Duddingston Golf Club near Edinburgh.

Four days later, the 36-year-old picked up nearly 100 times that by finishing joint fourth behind winner Adrian Meronk at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship - "without doubt" the best week of his career and a potentially career-changing one.

Stewart, who has jumped from 979th in the world rankings to 483 as a result, had thought he might have to return to Tartan Tour season finale at Gleneagles to protect his second place, which comes with it promotion to the second-tier Challenge Tour.

But finishing in the top 10 at St Andrews - two shots behind Poland's Meronk, one behind Denmark's Niklas Norgaard and South Africa's Casey Jarvis, and tied with England's Tommy Fleetwood - means he qualifies for this week's big-money Spanish Open.

And, thanks to advice from Sunday playing partner MJ Daffue, he is instead already flying to Madrid as that should give him an even better chance of making the Challenge Tour.

"After speaking to the tour and having things laid out for me, there is a thing I never knew existed called the [DP World Tour] Non-Member Points List," Stewart told The Scotsman.

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"At the moment, I'm in a place where I would have category 10 for next season's HotelPlanner Tour, whereas the card on offer through the Tartan Pro Tour is a category 12 one.

"So I have decided to take up the spot in Madrid and I won't be playing at Gleneagles. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I can keep it going."

While Meronk was earning his fifth win on the DP World Tour, Stewart, who finished one stroke ahead of compatriot and defending champion Robert MacIntyre, was making only his sixth appearance - having missed the cut in his previous five events.

The Ayrshire-based former Walker Cup player finished joint 52nd at The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 2023 but described his performance at Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews this week as a career highlight.

"The Open was amazing, but I felt really disheartened after the Sunday at The Open because I felt like I threw away what could have been a really special weekend," he said.

"But this is amazing. It gives yourself a little bit more belief that you can go on and compete at this level."

MacIntyre was delighted to see his fellow Scot's hard work rewarded.

"It's brilliant," he said. "That's exactly what I was hoping for.

"When we spoke at Kingsbarns when he had a good second round, it was like, hopefully he can do something special that gives him a chance.

"I play the odd game of golf with him and his short game is superb."