Ahead of the Turkish Airlines Challenge, we are looking at some of the talented hopefuls who are aiming to get their 2017 campaigns off to a great start at Gloria Golf Club in two weeks’ time. Here we caught up with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult.
The 20 year old announced himself to the golfing world in 2015, becoming the first amateur in six years to claim the halfway lead at a European Tour event after opening rounds of 67 and 68 took him to the top of the leaderboard at the Nordea Masters in his native Malmö.
After following up that initial success by earning a European Tour card at Qualifying School in 2015, the Junior Ryder Cup star struggled in the 2016 Race to Dubai, and found himself playing on the European Challenge Tour midway through last season.
Promising performances at the tail end of 2016, particularly when he entered the final round of the Ras Al Khaimah, 2016 Golf Challenge with a two-shot lead before finishing tied fourth, did fill the young Swede with confidence, though.
Following a productive winter break, and a tied 12thfinish in the season-opening Barclays Kenya Open, Kinhult is optimistic ahead of his second season on Europe’s top developmental tour.
“I’m excited and am looking forward to the year ahead,” he said. “I have had a very long off-season and while my game isn’t in the best shape at the moment, I’ve had a very good winter where I was able to do achieve a lot of good things when practising.
“I will try to build on how I finished the season last year. The first half of the year didn’t go very well, but week by week it slowly started to get better.
“I took some time off after finishing last season, as I had some issues in my lower back. I still do have some issues, but it feels a lot better now so I hope that I can play and practise as much as I want to.
“One thing I figured out last year was my bad days were too bad to compete at this level. When I saw the top players playing poorly they would still manage to make par, whereas I was finishing five, six or seven over when I had a bad round.
“I think that’s the key out here, to get something out of your bad days. Anyone can go out and card a really low score, but it is all about how you cope when you are not playing your best golf.
“I am aiming to finish in the top 15 this season and regain my European Tour card. I think winning a tournament will definitely help. I haven’t won out here yet and I felt I was in contention in Ras Al Khaimah so I think that experience will really help me this year.”
Kinhult, who represented Europe in the 2014 Junior Ryder Cup and won gold and silver medals for Sweden at the Youth Olympic Games in the same year, has been hotly-tipped as a future star in his home nation for some time.
While he admits he is still adapting to life as a professional, the man from Fiskebackskil is hopeful of eventually emulating Swedish superstars Henrik Stenson, the Open Champion, and current World Number Ten Alex Noren.
“Hopefully I will be ready in a few years to step up to join the next wave of Swedish talent,” he said.
“There are plenty of Swedish players out here now, I think 14 played in Kenya, and it is great to have that company as we help push each other in a good way.
“I think both Henrik and Alex have inspired us a lot. Alex is probably closer to us in age, so it was good fun to see him do so well. I have played with Henrik twice during practice rounds. He is really nice and always wants to look after us younger guys.
“He texts me around once or twice a year to see how I am getting on, and it is great to have a role model like that.”
