Max Kennedy’s hopes of earning a DP World Tour card for 2025 were on the ropes in the middle of the fifth and penultimate round at Spain’s Infinitum resort, but the Royal Dublin amateur dug deep and came out swinging on the back nine to keep his chances alive.
The sole-surviving Irishman following the 72-hole cut, Kennedy’s eight-under tally saw him four shots off the top 20 with 36 holes left to play, but starting the fifth round on the 10th hole, a run of three bogeys in four holes was far from the ideal start. A birdie on 13 was the lone bright spark in his opening nine holes, and he found himself on +2 for the day and badly in need of inspiration.
A birdie on the second sparked a revival, however, and two more back-to-back on four and five got him into red figures for the round, and another on eight saw him reach the clubhouse at -10, climbing five places to T42 by the time play was suspended as lightning swept through the area with 15 of those ahead of him still on the course.
Four shots off the qualification mark, the equation is fairly simple. He’s going to need to go low in the final round, and hope that it’s enough to force his way into the top 20, otherwise, he’s got Challenge Tour status to fall back on should he opt to go pro regardless.
“It was nice,” he said of his impressive back nine. “I started off pretty iffy, the conditions going out were pretty tough but coming back I played really, really good golf. I shot four under on the back nine so I was happy with that.
“I just kind of enjoyed it a bit more. Even though I was playing terrible, I just thought enjoy it and see what happens and I played well.
“I stick to my own game. I have quite a unique game: I don’t hit it very far, I don’t do what a lot of others do. I just try and stick to the process, keep hitting shots and see what happens.”
The 23-year-old was part of the inaugural Global Amateur Pathway Rankings – an initiative by the R&A, DP World Tour and PGA TOUR to help non-collegiate amateur golfers make their way on tour but found himself just on the outside looking in when the three places were distributed a few weeks back.
But by making the cut at Q-School Final Stage – doing it the hard way by navigating both First and Second Stage prior – he’s guaranteed Challenge Tour status at least so it’s effectively a free roll of the dice even though the higher he finishes, the better his chances of getting into events next season.
“I think I was one spot outside of it (Challenge Tour status) so to get it done this week was really nice and maybe we can go one more and get that DP World Tour status tomorrow,” he said.
“You want to stick to each shot and each hole but it’s kind of hard to do that. You want to make the cut, get your status on the Challenge Tour and reassess after that.
“There was definitely a bit more pressure in the first four rounds. Obviously you want to make the cut and once you make the cut, it’s not two free rounds but it feels a lot more free because you have some status for next year on the Challenge Tour.
“But you still want to play well these last two rounds and that is what I’m going to focus on.”
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