GOLF: England's  Philip Archer is threatening to run away with the number one spot in the European Tour final qualifying school at Emporda, the 30-year-old shooting his fifth consecutive round in the 60s yesterday, a 65 for a 27-under-par 330, to leave him four shots clear of his closest challenger, Sweden's Per Nyman.

Archer set off as though he was going to record the magic 59 as he went to the turn in six under par 29, a personal scoring record, making six threes and a two in the process. He almost made an eagle two at the fifth - his wedge finishing three inches from the cup.

A conservative back nine by his recent standards of 36 was tame stuff, Archer having played pro-ams in August in 95 under par over some 20 rounds of golf.

"The putter dried up on the back nine," he said.

Part of Archer's success is down to working with a psychologist, as he says himself he used to dwell on the bad shots too much. "My main error over the past five or six years has been not being able to get a bad shot out of my head and we have been sorting that out."

There were no such fireworks from the four Irish players remaining in the field after Monday night's cut, but Gary Murphy put in a solid two under par 69 to stay on course, his 19 under par 338 leaving him in a tie for fifth place going into the final round today, well on course for his Tour card, while Damien McGrane's four under 67 for 12 under 345 and a share of 25th place left the Wexford man in position to do the same if he can produce the goods today.

"I played reasonable again today but I struggled with the putter," said McGrane. "I managed to make birdies at the ninth, 11th, 13th and 14th, so I was hitting good shots all day and all of a sudden I holed a few, but I had no bogeys so I'm happy enough.

"I have played two years on the Challenge Tour and it will be great to get a card on the European Tour, it's everybody's ambition and I would be delighted, so I have just to go out and do the same again, that's what it's about."

Murphy's 69 was a frustrating round as he had at least eight chances for birdie that he was unable to convert. "It was very frustrating but I'm delighted that I have hung in there really and I hope to go low tomorrow.

"Nothing was really happening. I missed at the fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth and I had a good chance on the 10th. But I'm still in the top half dozen so if we can shoot low tomorrow I could win it."

Stephen Browne was disappointed after the superb 63 on Monday that got him into the last two rounds and said: "I just couldn't hole a putt today and then I was one under on the day playing the last and I just caught the wedge slightly heavy and it went in the water and I took double bogey. I'll just have to regroup and be ready to go again tomorrow, " he said.