Royal Dublin amateur Max Kennedy narrowly missed out on booking his place in the 36-hole shootout of the inaugural LIV Golf Promotions in Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
It means Kennedy will not grab one of the three available spots in next year’s LIV Golf League after missing out on a playoff by a shot after five players were tied for 20th place – Kennedy was 22nd.
The Louisville student carded a two-under 70 after the scores were reset for round two.
After opening his account for the day with a bogey, the 22-year-old picked up a shot on the second and responded strongly from a dropped shot with birdies on seven and eight. He then moved into the projected top-20 to advance to Sunday with a birdie on the tenth.
A bogey on 14 was a hammer blow but the Dubliner showed courage with a birdie on 15 and then a massive up and down on the 16th to keep his hopes alive.
Needing a closing birdie to guarantee his spot in the top-20 he closed with a couple of pars to bring his brave effort to an end.
Joel Stalter, Kevin Yuan, Kevin Chappell, Laurie Canter and Ben Campbell played off for the last four spots after carding 69s.
Suteepat Prateeptienchai shot a blistering 64 to top the leaderboard by two shots.
The 20 qualifiers will play 36 holes on Sunday with the top three (after any tiebreakers) awarded spots on a LIV Golf team in 2024.
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