Kennedy makes 36-hole weekend shootout for megabucks LIV Golf wildcard

Max Kennedy is seen on the fourth hole during the second round of the LIV Golf Promotions at Black Diamond Ranch on Friday, January 09, 2026 in Lecanto, Florida. (Photo by Mike Stobe/LIV Golf)

Max Kennedy produced another impressive performance to qualify for this weekend’s 36-hole shootout for three LIV Golf wildcards in Florida.

The Royal Dublin star (24) carded a bogey-free three-under 67 in the second round of LIV Golf Promotions at Black Diamond Ranch to finish tied for fifth, two strokes inside the top 20 and ties who qualified for the last two rounds.

The Dubliner was one of 29 players to join 18 exempt players in the second round after opening with a four under 66 on Thursday.

Scores were reset for the 47-man field in round two, and Kennedy continued in fine form.

He birdied the fourth, sixth and 13th to finish two strokes behind leading qualifier, Korea’s Jeunghun Wang, who shot 65 to top the leaderboard by a shot from Canada's Richard T. Lee, Sweden’s Bjorn Hellgren and Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana.

The cut for the top 20 and ties fell at one-under par, with 22 players making it to the weekend.

Kennedy’s 67 left him a nine-man tie for fifth with the likes of Jazz Janewattananond, Lucas Bjerregaard and Oliver Bekker.

The 22 qualifiers included former US Ryder Cup player Anthony Kim, who shot 69 to make the cut on one under and keep alive his hopes of returning to LIV Golf in 2026.

“Anything can happen in 36 holes,” Kim said. “I also know that I can make a lot of birdies. I think I have as good a chance as anybody to make it through, and I'll get some good rest, and I'll be ready for the weekend.”

The scores will be reset for the third round, but this time they will carry over into Sunday’s fourth and final round.

The top three (playoffs with decide ties) will then be awarded wildcards to compete in the 2026 LIV Golf League, which is scheduled to start with LIV Golf Riyadh in Saudi Arabia from February 4-7. 

Players who fail to make the top three but finish among the top 10 and ties will earn a full exemption into the 2026 International Series, sanctioned by the Asian Tour.

Kennedy has a HotelPlanner Tour card, and while he wouldn’t turn down Asian Tour status, he insisted after his first round that he’s gunning for one of those three wildcards and a spot alongside Ryder Cup stars Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Hollywood’s Tom McKibbin in the Saudi-funded league.

“I'd love the opportunity to play out there,” Kennedy said of Asia. “But the reason we come here is to play on LIV, not just the International Series. The plan is to get the LIV Tour card.”

While there’s a $200,000 payday for the winner of the event, $150,000 for second and $100,000 for third, Kennedy knows a top-three finish on Sunday would be life-changing.

“Yeah, it would be fantastic,” he said of the possibility of qualifying for LIV Golf, where Jon Rahm won $33 million last season, despite failing to win an event, and McKibbin banked $5.7m

“Yeah, that's what I came here to do, so that's the plan.”

LIV Promotions, round two, Black Diamond Ranch, Florida (Par 70)

Qualifiers 

- 5: 65 Jeunghun Wang

-4: 66 Richard T. Lee, Bjorn Hellgren, Sadom Kaewkanjana

-3: 67 Max Kennedy, Travis Smyth, Jazz Janewattananond, Sarit Suwannarut, Lucas Bjerregaard, Oliver Bekker, Danthai Boonma, Takanori Konishi, Joe Pagdin

-2: 68 Christopher Wood (Aus), Rattanon Wannasrichan

-1: Cory Crawford, Jose Islas, Julian Perico, Anthony Kim, Kieran Vincent, Matt Jones, Miguel Tabuena.

Missed cut

E (MC): Chase Koepka, Pablo Ereno, Max Kieffer, Sung-kug Park, Herman Loubser, Will Florimo, Dominic Foos, Louis Albertse, Tomoyo Ikemura, James Ashfield, Andy Ogletree

+1 (MC): Pavit Tangkamolprasert, Suteepat Prateeptienchai, Poom Saksansin, Soomin Lee, Ollie Schniederjans, Austen Truslow, Collin Adams

+2 (MC): Julien Brun, Max Rottluff, John Catlin

+3 (MC): Doyeon Hwang

+4 (MC): Charlie Forster, Matthias Schwab

+5 (MC): Hongtaek Kim

CUT after round one:

Callum Shinkwin, Nick Voke, Scotty Kennon, Cameron John, Jae Ho Kim, Matias Sanchez, Samuel Simpson, Chris Wood, Harrison Crowe, Jason Scrivener, Brett Drewitt, Clement Sordet, Dominic Clemons, M.J. Maguire, Yeong-su Kim, Marcus Plunkett, Ryo Katsumata, Luis Carrera, Tom Lewis, Grant Hirschman, Wei-Hsuan Wang, Jack Buchanan, Alex Levy, Joel Moscatel, Denzel Ieremia, Martin Vorster, Garam Jeon, Jonathan Brightwell, Josh Geary, Pierre Pineau.