WATERVILLE’S DAVID Higgins and Limerick’s Cian McNamara produced impressive sub-par last rounds in Spain yesterday to take a gigantic step towards securing their European Tour cards for next year.

Both are playing over the Las Colinas course. Higgins fired a 68 and McNamara a 69 for total scores of 280 – four under par – and they finished in joint 16th spot to squeeze through to the final stage starting on Saturday.

But at the same course Royal Dublin’s former amateur international Niall Kearney, Aaron O’Callaghan and Brendan McCarroll all failed dismally to make progress.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Chris Devlin pulled out all the stops at El Valle to record a four-under par 67 for a 281 aggregate and a share of 14th place.

It looked as though a third-round 75 might cost him dearly. But he did not put a foot wrong in round four and deserved to grab one of the 20 places on offer from that venue.

Mark Staunton of Castleknock just missed out after a disappointing closing 73 but he may still make the final if there are withdrawals. Stephen Grant and Niall Turner failed, although Grant in joint 25th has an outside chance of going through if sufficient numbers pull out.

Colm Moriarty’s failure at La Manga was a huge disappointment as he could do no better than 290 for joint 38th and Neil O’Briain squandered his chance with a 76 yesterday. Michael McGeady was well out of it.

The final stage starts on Saturday at Catalunya in Girona and six gruelling rounds later 30 players will get their cards.