Niall Kearney of Royal Dublin started the day on four under par and proceeded to drop as many shots after carding three double bogeys and bogey by the time he walked off the tenth green – leaving him three shots off the projected cut with eight holes to play.
Then some magic on his 12th and 13th holes allowed a two shot recovery and with momentum on his side the Dubliner eagled the 16th hole - the par five seventh – to go level for the day.
The 2009 Walker Cup player then ended his round where he started on four under and inside the cut with one shot to spare. More importantly, he makes the final two rounds on Thursday and Friday.
Having finished in 49th place a year ago Kearney is now targeting a top 30 finish – which he is well capable of achieving.
For Simon Thornton fortune worked the other way after he let slip his three under par over night total to finish 1 under par for the day and two under overall in a share of 71st place. At one point 2 under looked enough but the final groupings didn’t impact the scoreboard and Thornton missed out by one shot.
Colm Moriarty ended the day in 112th place after playing a one under par round to end the tournament over par - having started the day without a realistic chance of improving his overnight position.
After making the turn level pegging the Athlone golfer dropped a shot on the back nine to finish the day with a 71 and 2 over for the tournament - bringing to an end another Q School campaign.
For Damian Mooney the European Tour also ended after he was unable to overcome the damage of his third round 77 on Tuesday signing for a final round of 67 on 3 over par and in a share for 123rd place.
The Final Stage now is now only two more rounds of golf over the Stadium Courses in which the leading 30 players (+ ties) will be ranked according to their score for 2010 Tour Cards..
These will be most competitive and nerve jangling holes these professionals will ever play and they also do so knowing that only 30 earn places at the European Tour next season.
Other casualties from round 4 included Chris Gane of England, Jose Felipe Lima of Portugal. Julien Guerrer of France and 1999 Ryder Cup team member Andrew Coltart .
Veteran Santiago Luna of Spain also fell short as did Scotland duo of Marc Warren and Scott Drummond.
