Hickey suffers painful finish at Alps Tour Q-School

John Hickey (Cork). Picture: Niall O’Shea

Cork's John Hickey suffered a second round nightmare to miss out on qualifying for the Final Stage of the Alps Tour Qualifying School in Spain on Monday.

The Munster interprovincial was tied for the lead after an opening 66 on the America course at La Cala, where 33 spots were up for grabs.

He was comfortably inside the top 33 on four under par with five holes of his second round remaining but played them in nine-over par as he mixed bogeys at the fifth and seventh (his 14th and 16th) with a triple bogey eight at the par-five sixth and a quadruple bogey nine at the par-five ninth.

It all added up to a 10-over 81 which left him on five-over, one stroke outside a five-man playoff for the last two spots.

Amateur Peter Dallat shot a 70 at the same venue to qualify easily in tied 11th on level par, 12 strokes behind the runaway winner, French amateur Pierre Pineau (67-63).

On the Asia course, Italian Luca Cianchetti (69-64) headed he 33 qualifiers on nine-under, but amateur Owen Crooks (75-74) missed out on a nine-man play-off for the last seven spots by a stroke as he finished on five-over.

There were just nine spots on offer at the Europa course, where Frenchman Timothée Guin topped the leaderboard on two-under.

The Final Stage that will take place from Thursday to Saturday, December 13-15 with Peter Dallat, Michael Dallat, Justin Brink, Stephen Grant and Jonathan Yates all expected to tee it up.