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Niall Kearney narrowly missed out on becoming the first Irish golfer to break the 60 mark on tour, as he signed for a 61 in the final round of the Canary Islands Championship in Tenerife.
Kearney made nine birdies and an eagle in his round - dropping a solitary shot - with his 10-under-par effort seeing him surge up the leaderboard.
He needed back-to-back birdies on his final two holes - the eighth and ninth - to card a 59 but finished his fine 18 with two pars.
Kearney's 61 was enough to see him finish in a share of fourth place overall, still way off the pace of tournament winner Garrick Higgo.
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South Africa’s Higgo cruised to his second victory in three weeks with the aid of a hole-in-one in the final round.
Higgo, who won the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open a fortnight ago, aced the par-three seventh at Golf Costa Adeje in a closing 64 to finish six shots clear of Australia’s Maverick Antcliff.
The 21-year-old left-hander’s winning total of 27 under par was just two shots outside the European Tour record set by compatriot Ernie Els in 2003 and meant he was an incredible 68 under overall for the three-week Canary Islands swing.
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Higgo took a two-shot lead into the final round and had already doubled his advantage by playing the first six holes in two under before holing out with a nine iron on the short seventh.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Canary Islands Championship, Golf Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Spain (Br & Irl unless stated, Par 71):
257 Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 66 63 64 64
263 Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 70 64 64 65
264 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 66 71 61 66
265 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 67 67 65 66, Niall Kearney 68 64 72 61, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 68 63 69 65, Andrew Johnston 68 63 67 67, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 64 64 72 65
266 Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 68 69 66 63, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 65 68 68 65, Alejandro Del Rey (Spa) 69 66 65 66
267 Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 66 66 67 68, Richard Mansell 65 66 64 72, Oliver Fisher 66 66 70 65, Louis de Jager (Rsa) 65 68 67 67, Eddie Pepperell 66 69 67 65, Connor Syme 66 64 71 66, Calum Hill 65 65 66 71, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 64 70 67 66
268 Zander Lombard (Rsa) 66 67 67 68, Matthew Southgate 68 66 66 68, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 64 67 67
269 Richie Ramsay 65 65 71 68, Rhys Enoch 65 68 69 67, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 70 66 68 65, Grant Forrest 67 68 68 66
270 Tom Gandy (IoM) 70 63 70 67, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 69 64 67 70, Richard Bland 69 66 69 66, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 66 69 68 67, Julian Suri (USA) 66 69 65 70, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 62 68 70 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 70 65 69 66
271 Jack Senior 67 68 70 66, Eduard Rousaud (Spa) 67 67 67 70, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 71 64 67 69, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 65 66 71 69
272 Justin Harding (Rsa) 65 68 69 70, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 69 67 70 66
273 Ricardo Santos (Por) 67 68 71 67, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 70 66 68 69, Laurie Canter 70 67 69 67, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 69 69 67 68, Garrick Porteous 66 67 68 72
274 Svn-Hwan Kim (Kor) 71 64 70 69, Paul Peterson (USA) 69 65 73 67, Paul Dunne 65 71 66 72, Johannes Veerman (USA) 70 66 71 67, Eduardo de la Riva (Spa) 68 68 70 68, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 66 70 68
275 Scott Hend (Aus) 67 66 70 72, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 68 70 67 70, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 66 66 71, Justin Walters (Rsa) 72 64 72 67, David Coupland 68 68 71 68
276 Thomas Plumb 68 70 70 68, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 69 65 70 72, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 63 71 72 70, Janne Kaske (Fin) 69 68 70 69, Dale Whitnell 68 66 70 72
277 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 69 69 70 69, Shiv Chawrasia (Ind) 68 68 73 68, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 66 69 74 68, Joel Stalter (Fra) 64 69 74 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 67 70 70 70
278 Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 69 72 68, Matthew Jordan 68 70 70 70, Lars van Meijel (Ned) 68 70 70 70
279 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 67 71 67 74
280 Pep Angles (Spa) 65 71 71 73
281 Ondrej Lieser (Cze) 70 68 72 71, Luis Claverie (Spa) 67 71 72 71, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 71 65 76 69
282 Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 67 69 74 72
287 Oliver Wilson 73 65 76 73, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 72 66 80 69
288 Max Schmitt (Ger) 67 69 81 71
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