Gary Hurley confessed he felt pure "relief" as he nervously stroked home a two and a half foot tiddler for a 65 to make the cut on the mark and keep his European Tour dream alive at PGA Catalunya Resort's Tour Course on Tuesday afternoon.
But for sheer guts and dramatic effect, the 23-year-old West Waterford man's five-under effort had to take a back seat to five-time European Tour winner Michael Hoey, who also birdied his final hole to stay alive at the European Tour Qualifying School.
Facing a slippery, left to right, snaking 12 footer to make the top 70 and ties that will play two more gruelling rounds, the 37-year-old from Ballymoney made one of just nine birdies on the 18th at the Stadium Course for a 71 to join Hurley on the 284, level par cut mark.
With the top 25 and ties who will earn tour cards after six rounds only four shots ahead of them, both men now have a realistic chance of leaving Girona with a golden ticket.
For Hoey, who had missed 20 of 27 cuts this year, it was little wonder that he allowed himself a little fist pump of joy.
“Did you see my fist pump on the last?” said the Shandon Park golfer, who birdied the 15th to get back to level for the round, then hit a three quarter eight-iron over the stick at the 458-yard finishing hole and made the putt.
“I haven’t birdied the last to make the cut this year! Hopefully my fortunes are changing. I would have been disappointed to be heading home tonight.”
Rosapenna's Ruaidhrí McGee made a quintuple bogey nine on the water-protected 15th in a two-over 72 to miss the cut by six shots while Mount Juliet's Kevin Phelan never got going and missed by seven strokes after a level-par 70 playing alongside the impressive Hurley.
But it was a day of joy for Hurley, who took advantage of his breaks and made an eagle, four birdies and one bogey in a five-under 65 that he now ranks “up there” among his best rounds under pressure.
Five shots outside the projected mark starting the day, the 2015 Walker Cup winner birdied the second and third, then followed a bogey at the fourth with a birdie at the sixth to turn in two under.
He reduced the par-five 10th to a drive, a 161-yard eight iron and four foot putt, got a lucky ricochet off a tree and a cart path to avoid trouble at the 13th and made up for a series of missed chances down the stretch with a superb, two-putt birdie four at the 18th.
“I knew I needed to make birdie at least,” a relieved Hurley said afterwards. “I didn’t hit that many really good shots. I just hit plain shots and my putter holed a few nice ones, even though I felt really uncomfortable over the short ones. I am delighted to make the cut.
“The primary goal coming here wasn’t just to make the cut, it was to finish in the top 25, otherwise there’s no point coming.
“But I’ve given myself a chance now and if I can get back to how I normally play golf for the next two days hopefully I will be in there with a shout on the back nine on Thursday?”
Struggling all week to start his putts on line, Hurley thought his eagle effort on the last was in, then left himself a knee-knocker for survival.
“I was just trying to start it on line,” said Hurley, whose South African caddie Joseph collected some bets as his employer survived the cut
“I know it was only two feet but the greens are quite bobbly with a lot of footprints and grain and I’ve been struggling big time this week and last week to start the ball along my intended line.
“I was just happy to see it go in the hole. The first putt for eagle was brilliant. I couldn’t believe it missed. When it was 10 feet out I thought, it’s going to drop in the front door. But it trickled two and a half feet past and I was like ‘oh no!’
“I am relieved to make the cut and get to play two more rounds and get to experience the six rounds.
“I will just go out and try to play as know I can. I am good enough but I am not striking it well enough at the moment. Today I got it around. If I can just get it around, even though I am not completely on and I find something a little bit in my putting, I am sure I can threaten.
“If I play to what I know I can play to, I am sure I will make it.”
At the top of the leaderboard, England's Nathan Kimsey finished birdie-birdie-eagle for a nine-under 61 on the Tour Course and a three-stroke lead on 12 under par from compatriots Richard McEvoy and Robert Coles, Dane Jeff Winther and former Ryder Cup winner Edoardo Molinari of Italy.
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