A sensational three-under par 68 handed Michael Sims his best finish yet on the Nationwide Tour yesterday — with the 28-year-old picking up a whopping $18,200 for his tenth-placed finish at the Nationwide Hospital Charity Classic in Ohio.

The Bermuda number one’s biggest pay-day so far takes him from 155th on the Tour moneylist to a hugely encouraging 98th — with Sims now boasting $31,043 in prize money for the year.

His previous best finish came at the Knoxville Open three weeks ago where he finished tied for 16th.

With strong winds buffeting the Ohio State University Scarlet course all week and keeping the scores relatively high, Sims began yesterday in a tie for 17th on two-over par for the tournament following a one-over par third round 72 on Saturday.

Sims played the front nine in an impressive even-par before turning on the style after the turn, birdieing the 13th, 14th — the latter the hardest hole on the 7,141-yard course — and 16th to surge up the leaderboard.

Though never in contention for the top spot — with tournament winner Daniel Summerhays of the US ultimately finishing on six-under — Sims’ confidence is sure to be given an enormous boost with 15 tournaments still to play by his first top ten finish of the year.

“It was a fantastic week for Mike, he played brilliantly all week and really deserves a lot of credit,” said caddie Tom Giles from Ohio last night.

“The wind for all four rounds was between 15 and 20 miles an hour and the greens were really firm as well. It was undoubtedly the biggest test of golf this year and Mike had to be really patient at times.

“In fact I don’t think any of his stats this week are reflective of quite how well he played — on a lot of the other courses we’ve played this year he would have shot much lower.

“On Thursday he played really well but ended up making a 74 (three-over). It can be very frustrating when you’re playing well but the conditions during the round are such that you end up with a relatively high number.

“But to his credit he didn’t let it get to him and he kept it together — making a lot of good par saves and managing his game very well.

“And today (yesterday) Mike was just really impressive. He was very solid on the front nine and didn’t make any bogeys. We got to the 12th (a par five) which is relatively short and one of the few holes on the course where you really expect to make a birdie. But he ended up paring it.

“But rather than beat himself up he just got on with it and ended up with birdies on the next two holes. That really shows the improvements he has made to his game since the beginning of the season.

“Overall he’s starting to putt well and mentally he’s in a much better place than he’s ever been. So it’s been a really great week and there’s no reason why he can’t just continue improving.”

Following a brief Pro-Am commitment in Boston this week, Sims moves on to the $556,000 Pricecutter Charity Championship in Springfield, Missouri which begins on Thursday.

He has now made five cuts from 17 events this year, including two top-25 finished and now one top-ten.