American John Hahn proved anything was still possible on the final day of Ryder Cup qualifying in the 71° OPEN D'ITALIA Presented by DAMIANI on Sunday.
Stephen Gallacher needs to finish in the top two in Turin to dislodge Graeme McDowell from the final automatic qualifying place in Paul McGinley's European Team for Gleneagles.
The 39-year-old trails leader Hennie Otto by six shots and second-placed Richie Ramsay by four, but could take heart from the low scoring demonstrated in Hahn's remarkable 65.
In the second group out at 7:31am, Hahn raced to the turn in 28 - just one outside The European Tour record - with two eagles and four birdies and was on course for the first 59 in European Tour history when he also birdied the 11th.
However, the 25 year old rookie then hit two balls into the water to run up a quadruple-bogey seven on the 13th, before recording a birdie on the 14th, another eagle on the 15th and a bogey on the 17th.
"Today was weird," Hahn said with considerable understatement. "You're nine under par and throw a quad in and then I holed a shot on 15 that never should have gone in, but obviously you're happy about it.
"When you get in a zone you just sort of shut everything else out. I have been putting good all week and I got a little lesson yesterday from Padraig Harrington in a bunker which translated to my whole game.
"I was thrilled to play today just because I was excited about my lesson yesterday and to try to work on the things I worked on on the range. Everybody's shot 61, 62 out here so it doesn't bother you, you just try to shoot 58 or 57, somebody has to do it eventually.
"I've had some good rounds and bounced back with some miserable rounds so to finish with a good round is great and it will be a better flight home. It was a nice end to my week in Italy, that's for sure."
Hahn holed from six feet for eagle on the par five first and from a similar distance on the seventh, where the tee had been brought forward to allow players to attempt to drive the green.
Gallacher made the ideal start, holing from 15 feet for birdie on the first and 25 feet on the second to improve to 12 under par and within two shots of second place.
Ramsay had only been able to par the first after driving into the rough, but Otto made birdie to stretch his lead to three shots on 17 under par.
The South African looked to have touched his ball as he addressed it ahead of his second shot, but it was deemed to have returned to its original position and therefore no penalty was assessed.
Gallacher, who lives just 35 miles from Gleneagles, then holed from close range for birdies on the fourth and fifth to move into a two-way tie for second, which would be just enough to seal his Ryder Cup place.
And with playing partner Ross Fisher dropping shots on the same holes, Gallacher and Ramsay were two ahead of Joost Luiten, Lee Slattery and Bernd Wiesberger in joint fourth.
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