Mixed bag for Irish challengers

There was a mixture of agony and ecstacy for the Ireland contingent at the European tour final qualifying school yesterday, as the cut after four rounds fell at six-under-par 280, 77 players progressing into the final two rounds to be played today and tomorrow at Emporda.

Lancashire's Philip Archer increased his overnight lead to two shots after firing a 67 at Emporda to get to 21-under-par 265 and Philip Golding, who just lost out on his tour card at the Italian Open, also shot 67 to take over second place on his own, with Gary Murphy - who dropped a shot at the 17th hole - falling back into a four-way tie for fourth on 17-under-par 269, also after a 67.

Murphy was a little disappointed with his finish, but basically happy with his overall performance saying, "I hit a bad shot at 17 and couldn't get up and down and didn't make birdie at the last, but I'm happy enough.

"I played a lot better today and I don't think a lot of guys will have gone past me."

"I was patient enough to wait for my birdies and not to try and force them - that has been my strategy all week, but it is such a long tournament. I feel like I've been here for a week already and there are still two rounds to go so I'll just keep plodding away.

"I would like to win it, but the better the card the more tournaments you get to play and a few quid in the bank doesn't hurt either."

The most ecstatic player in the whole field had to be Stephen Browne, who, after a 77 on Sunday, had to regroup and shoot a low number if he was to survive the cut.

He did both, shooting the equal best round of the day, an eight-under-par 63 to climb through the field and finish on eight-under-par 278, his scorecard containing nine birdies in all.

"It was definitely the round of my life," said Stephen, "No celebrations yet, but maybe I'm in the hunt now for Tuesday - Wednesday so I'm just going to do my usual routine and have another go tomorrow."

Gary Cullen shot 69 to go forward on the same mark as Browne, with Damien McGrane who had a bad day at Emporda shooting two-over-par 73 also finishing at eight-under, while Philip Walton missed the cut by one shot after three-putting his final green at Emporda, the ninth, the resultant bogey-five giving Walton an early flight home.

At Pals, Michael Hoey had his second 77 of the tournament to finish seven shots adrift of the cut on 287 and Daniel Sugrue had a 73 for 293.

"I don't know if I'll stay amateur. I'll have a bit of turkey over Christmas and think about it as I've got to shape up a bit if I'm going to do this for a living," said Sugrue at Pals, cheerful as ever.