Anssi Kankkonen

Anssi Kankkonen (born 11 October 1968) is a Finnish professional golfer who played on the European Tour.

Anssi Kankkonen
Personal information
Born (1968-10-11) 11 October 1968
Lahti, Finland
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Nationality Finland
Career
Turned professional1990
Former tour(s)European Tour
Challenge Tour
Professional wins4
Number of wins by tour
Challenge Tour3
Other1

Kankkonen was born in Lahti, the son of former Olympic ski jumping champion Veikko Kankkonen, and followed in his father's footsteps winning a team competition in the Finnish Championships with the Lahti Ski Club team in 1985,[1] before turning to golf. As an amateur, he represented Finland at the 1990 Eisenhower Trophy.[2] He turned professional in 1990 and played on the Swedish Golf Tour before joining the Challenge Tour.

Kankkonen recorded his first Challenge Tour win at the 1995 SIAB Open, and almost won another tournament back-to-back, losing a playoff to Thomas Bjørn at the Himmerland Open. He played on the 1996 European Tour but recorded only one top-10, at the English Open, and returned to the Challenge Tour in 1997 where he won two tournaments, the Alianca UAP Challenge in Portugal after triumphing in a three-way playoff, and the Rolex Trophy Pro-Am in Switzerland. He would have made it three but lost a playoff with Knud Storgaard in the season opener, the Ivory Coast Open. He finished fifth on the Challenge Tour ranking to re-join the European Tour in 1998.[3]

Kankkonen represented Finland at five World Cups (1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997) with a best finish of 19th together with Kalle Väinölä in 1995.[4][5]

Professional wins (4)

Challenge Tour wins (3)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 4 Jun 1995 SIAB Open −1 (74-69-68-72=283) 2 strokes Kalle Väinölä
2 27 Apr 1997 Alianca UAP Challenger −20 (64-63-70-71=268) Playoff Fredrik Lindgren, Nicolas Vanhootegem
3 20 Jul 1997 Rolex Pro-Am −12 (66-67-72-71=276) 1 stroke Thomas Nielsen

Nordic Golf League wins (1)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory
Runner-up
1 7 Sep 2001 PGA Finnish Championship −8 (71-69-68=208) 1 stroke Kalle Aitala

Source: [6]

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

References

  1. Jussila, Pentti (1998). Suomen hiihto (in Finnish). Helsinki. p. 212. ISBN 951-1-15482-6.
  2. "1990 World Amateur Team Golf Championship" (PDF). IGF. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  3. "Anssi Kankkonen Bio". European Tour. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  4. "World Cup of Golf". Sentinel. Santa Cruz, California. 13 November 1995. p. B4.
  5. "World Cup of Golf". The Monitor. McAllen, Texas. 13 November 1995. p. 3B via newspapers.com.
  6. "Results 2001 PGA Finnish Championship". Golfdata. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.