Max Kennedy fired a four-under 68 but missed out by two strokes in his bid for one of four places on offer in the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic Open Qualifier in Florida.

The Royal Dublin man returned to the Palmer Course at The Tesoro Club in Port St Lucie on three-under early on Tuesday with two holes of his qualifying round remaining.

Scores

He needed a birdie-birdie finish at the eighth and ninth to have a chance of joining the players on five-under and potentially clinch a playoff chance.

But while he birdied the par-five eighth to get to four-under, he parred the ninth and eventually finished two shots outside a three man playoff for the last two of four qualifying places.

Patrick Sheehan shot an eight-under 64 to top the qualifiers by a shot from Matthew Riedel before Dylan Wu and Bo Hoag edged out Cristian DiMarco for the other two qualifying places after they tied in six-under.

Kennedy finished tied for 11th in a quality field which can only be good for his confidence ahead of his PGA Tour debut in next week’s Puerto Rico Open, which will be played opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Kennedy earned his PGA Tour start as a reward for winning the General Hackler Championship during his final year at the University of Louisville.

Alps Tour

Ronan Mullarney was the only Irish player to make the one-over-par cut in the Red Sea Little Venice Open in Egypt.

The Galway man carded a second successive one-under 71 at Sokhna Golf Club to share 18th on two-under.

Scores

He's six strokes behind Spain’s Alvaro Hernandez Cabezuela (67), France’s Quentin Debove (68) and Italy’s Jacopo Vecchi Fossa (69), who head the field by two shots.

Mullarney was joint runner-up in last week’s season-opening event, the Ein Bay Open, at the same venue.

Kinsale’s John Murphy shot 72 but missed the cut by a shot with Marc Boucher (75) and Robert Moran (76) a shot further back.

Hugh Foley shot 76 to miss out by five strokes on six-over.