Amateur Max Kennedy has already achieved one goal this week at DP World Tour Qualifying School Final Stage but he still heads into the sixth and closing round with lofty ambitions.
By making the 72-hole cut at INFINITUM, Kennedy has assured his place on the European Challenge Tour for 2025, a status upon which he narrowly missed out just weeks ago.
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.
China's Wenyi Ding topped the Rankings to earn himself a DP World Tour card, while Kennedy missed out on one of the three Challenge Tour cards available by one place as he finished behind Jacob Skov Olesen, Luis Masaveu and Bastien Amat as the next three best-placed European or Middle Eastern players.
Olesen and Amat - who has now turned professional - are both handily placed to make the top 20 and ties after five days at Final Stage and while Kennedy had some work to do, he was eager to make it a hat-trick of GAP players in the graduation places.
"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."
This driver off the deck from Irish amateur Max Kennedy 🤯#DPWTQSchool pic.twitter.com/Ddv2Iw8gzL
— DP World Tour Q-School (@DPWTQSchool) November 12, 2024
Kennedy's chances of a DP World Tour card looked to be fading fast when he turned in 38 after starting on the tenth at the Lakes Course but he made four birdies on the way home to get to ten under with a 69 and keep his chances alive with 18 holes to play.
"It was nice," he said. "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."
