Irish golfers in last push for European Tour place

Four Irish golfers will find out later today if they have secured a place on next year's European Tour.

Michael Hoey, Michael McGeady, Jonathon Caldwell and Simon Thornton are all in action at the qualifying school at PGA Catalunya in Spain, where the top-30 at the end of today's play will get a place on the tour.

Hoey, Mc Geady and Caldwell are the best-placed of the four, with Thornton likely to miss out.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s Oskar Henningsson stayed on course to create European Tour qualifying school history in the closing round.

The 23-year-old has progressed through stage one and two of the gruelling process over the past couple of months and should he finish top at the end of the sixth round tonight he would become the first player to come through all stages and win the final.

Henningsson, who won the PGA Champions Trophy of Europe in September, eased himself into a three stroke lead during the early stages at the venue near Girona this morning.

He covered six holes in one-under to sit comfortably ahead of Spaniard Carlos Del Moral in the race for the 30 tour cards on offer.

English rookie Danny Willett, the former world amateur number one, was going along nicely in a share of third on 15-under after a one-under start.

Chris Wood, fifth in July’s Open at Royal Birkdale, closed the gap on the leading pack with three birdies in his first six holes to move up to 15-under.

Former Ryder Cup players Joakim Haeggman and Andrew Coltart were both still in the card-winning spots on 11-under and 10-under respectively while Surrey’s James Morrison was mounting a late charge for a card and had leapt from 45th to equal 21st after playing 12 holes in five-under.