A late stumble took the gloss off an otherwise excellent week for Brad Kennedy who had a legitimate chance to win a third Japan Tour title Sunday at the Fujisankei Classic.

The Queenslander headed to the final round just one shot out of the lead and through 14 holes of the final round was just two behind eventual champion Min-gyu Cho.

However, Kennedy made a costly double bogey at the 17^th hole and compounded the error with a bogey at the 18^th to slip to T6 for the week, four behind the winner.

While it wasn’t the result he wanted, Kennedy will take plenty of confidence from a continuation of some fine play in 2016 having now moved to seventh on the Order of Merit.

He is two places behind New Zealand’s Michael Hendry on the earnings table, Hendry battling to a T20 finish this week.

The pair have separated themselves from the Australasian contingent with some stunning play this year and while neither has yet posted a win it seems only a matter of time for both.

Hendry was next best behind Kennedy this week with Brendan Jones a further shot behind the Kiwi in T24.

Won Joon Lee (T33), Matt Griffin (T40), Scott Strange (T56) and Kurt Barneds (T60) were the others to make the cut, Adam Bland and David Smail both failing to qualify for the weekend.