Royal Dublin amateur Max Kennedy made huge strides up the leaderboard on day three of DP World Tour Q-School’s Second Stage and he’s just 18 holes away from a berth in next week’s Final Stage.
Due to heavy rains, round two was suspended at Isla Canela and Kennedy, along with Cormac Sharvin, Mark Power and Paul McBride returned on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on their second rounds. A 69 to follow his opening 70 had Kennedy in good shape, but it was a bogey-free third round of 65 that included seven birdies that propelled him up the leaderboard, and he sits second in the clubhouse on -12, with the leading 15 players from round two still on the course.
Sharvin also made strides with a six-under 66, but at -7 overall, he’ll need to follow up with something similar on Sunday. Power, despite shooting three rounds under-par, will also need to go low as he sits one behind Sharvin on -6, but McBride’s race is run after a third round of 78 saw him slip out of contention.
At Desert Springs in the south east, Jonathan Caldwell remains on course to qualify as his second successive round of 70 following an opening 65 moves him to -11 and he’s in 10th position with 22 places up for grabs. Liam Nolan remains in the hunt despite a one-over 73 that dropped him back to -8 and he’s a shot off the qualification mark in a tie for 25th.
Paul Dunne is two further back and will take an aggressive mindset, as will Niall Kearney who has one stroke further to find as he sits tied for 48th at -5.
Ronan Mullarney is competing at Golf Las Pinaillas some 100 miles to the north east, but the sole Irishman in that qualifier looks set to miss out as a one-over 72 leaves him on +1 for the tournament and eight shots off the qualifying mark, and the same goes for Rowan Lester who fell 12 shots off the mark with a second-successive 73 in Girona.
Leave a comment