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Marcus Kinhult

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Marcus Kinhult
Kinhult in 2016
Personal information
Full nameMarcus Mikael Kinhult
Born (1996-07-24) 24 July 1996 (age 28)
Fiskebäckskil, Sweden
Height1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight67 kg (148 lb; 10.6 st)
Sporting nationality Sweden
ResidenceFiskebäckskil, Sweden
Career
Turned professional2015
Current tour(s)European Tour
Former tour(s)Challenge Tour
Professional wins3
Highest ranking81 (5 January 2020)[1]
(as of 27 October 2024)
Number of wins by tour
European Tour1
Other2
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipCUT: 2020
U.S. OpenT32: 2019
The Open ChampionshipT61: 2018
Achievements and awards
Swedish Golfer of the Year2019
Medal record
Youth Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Nanjing Mixed team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Nanjing Boys' individual

Marcus Mikael Kinhult (born 24 July 1996) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2019 Betfred British Masters.

Early life

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Being son of golf professional Mikael Kinhult, he started playing the game at six years of age at Skaftö Golf Club in Fiskebäckskil, on the small Swedish west coast island Skaftö with 1,400 inhabitants. Other famous members, spending a lot of time there during summer seasons, were future Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn, five-times European Tour winner Barry Lane and Challenge Tour winner to be Joel Sjöholm.[2]

Kinhults younger sister Frida Kinhult is also a tournament golf professional. In June 2019 she reached number one on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, a feat her brother never achieved, as his best world amateur ranking was second.[3]

Amateur career

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In 2014 Kinhult represented Sweden at the Summer Youth Olympics and at the Eisenhower Trophy and Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup.[4] At the Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, he earned an individual silver medal and a gold medal in the mixed team event with Linnea Ström, making Sweden tied best nation at golf in the games.

The Swedish team finished 4th in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy in Kuruizawa, Japan, with Kinhult finishing as best Swedish player, having the 6th best individual score, five strokes from winner Jon Rahm, Spain.

In April 2015, Kinhult won one of the more important junior tournaments in the United States, the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club, South Carolina, becoming the first non-American to do so.[5] A month later, he won the prestigious Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lancashire, England, by eight shots, following in the footsteps of former winners, such as Michael Bonallack, Peter McEvoy, Paul Broadhurst and Stephen Gallacher.[6]

Kinhult again grabbed the golfing headlines in June 2015 when he led the European Tour's Nordea Masters at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Stockholm, Sweden, at the halfway stage, after opening with rounds of 68 and 67. Only 18 years old, he ultimately tied for 33rd place in what was his second European Tour appearance.[4] He was the third amateur to lead a European Tour event after 36 holes, and the first since Ireland's Shane Lowry at the 2009 Irish Open, which Lowry went on to win.[6]

In late 2015 he entered the European Tour Qualifying School as an amateur. After finishing third in the second stage, he led after three rounds at the final stage, eventually settling for the 17th card. Though he had considered going to college in America, he turned professional after his success at PGA Catalunya Resort.[4]

Professional career

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2016 was a disappointing first season for Kinhult on the European Tour and he only made two cuts. Halfway through the season he dropped down to the Challenge Tour where his best performance was at the Ras Al Khaimah Golf Challenge, where he held a two-shot lead heading into final round. He eventually finished fourth. Having entered the tournament in 68th place on the Road to Oman he needed a top-three finish to qualify for the Challenge Tour Grand Final.[7]

Kinhult had better success on the Challenge Tour in 2017. He had five top-5 finishes, earned a career best solo second at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final, and finished 5th in the Road to Oman, which gained him his European Tour card for 2018. He started the 2018 European Tour strongly and after finishing solo third at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and tied for fifth at Open de France he rose to 148 on the Official World Golf Ranking and qualified for his first major at the 2018 Open Championship, where he made the cut.[8] Later in the season Kinhult was tied for 4th in the Portugal Masters and he ended the 2018 season 49th in the Order of Merit.

In May 2019, Kinhult secured his maiden professional victory at the Betfred British Masters at Hillside Golf Club, Southport, England.[9] With birdies on the last two holes of the tournament, rolling in an eight-foot birdie putt at the last hole, Kinhult out-dueled his playing partner Matt Wallace by a stroke and won a first prize of €579,550.

In June, at the Walton Heath U.S. Open sectional qualifier in Surrey, England, he qualified for the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach,[10] where he went on to record the lowest Sunday round of the tournament (66) to finish tied-32 in his first major on American soil.

In November 2019, Kinhult finished second in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, after losing in a playoff to Tommy Fleetwood.[11] He finished the 2019 European Tour season 12th on the Order of Merit Race to Dubai rankings[12] and was awarded 2019 Swedish Golfer of the Year, male and female. In January 2020, he reached a career best 81st on the Official World Golf Ranking.

During a practice period in Spain in April 2021, Kinhult suddenly suffered an epileptic seizure, which caused him to take a break of several months from tournament golf.[13] Seven weeks after the incident, Kinhult played nine holes of practice golf at his home course Skaftö GC in Sweden. He came back to competition at the Irish Open on the European Tour in the beginning of July 2021.[14]

In February 2022, Kinhult won the GolfStar Winter Series II on the Nordic Golf League.[15]

Amateur wins

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Source:[18]

Professional wins (3)

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European Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 12 May 2019 Betfred British Masters −16 (65-69-68-70=272) 1 stroke Scotland Robert MacIntyre, England Eddie Pepperell,
England Matt Wallace

European Tour playoff record (0–2)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2019 Nedbank Golf Challenge England Tommy Fleetwood Lost to par on first extra hole
2 2024 KLM Open England Joe Dean, Italy Guido Migliozzi Migliozzi won with birdie on second extra hole

Nordic Golf League wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 24 Feb 2022 GolfStar Winter Series II −10 (69-65-70=204) 1 stroke Norway Jarand Ekeland Arnøy, Finland Matias Honkala,
Sweden Joakim Wikström

Other wins (1)

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  • 2011 Torreby Open (Swedish minitour) (as an amateur)[19]

Results in major championships

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Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020.

Tournament 2018 2019 2020 2021
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship CUT
U.S. Open T32
The Open Championship T61 NT CUT
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 2020
Championship T69
Match Play NT1
Invitational
Champions NT1

1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

  Did not play

NT = No tournament
"T" = Tied

Team appearances

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Amateur

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 1 2020 Ending 5 Jan 2020" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Skaftö – årets juniorklubb". Svensk Golf. February 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  3. ^ "European Girls' Team Championship Results". European Golf Association. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Marcus Kinhult bio". PGA European Tour. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Junior Invitational, Champions". Junior Invitational. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Golf: Marcus Kinhult makes mark on home soil | The Scotsman".
  7. ^ "Marcus Kinhult holds two shot lead heading into Ras Al Khaimah 2016 Golf Challenge final round". The National. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Official World Golf Ranking: Marcus Kinhult". Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  9. ^ "Cool Kinhult Clinches Dramatic British Masters Victory". European Tour. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Burmester Claims the Spoils as 14 Qualify for US Open at Walton Heath". PGA European Tour. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  11. ^ Herrington, Ryan (17 November 2019). "Sharp play, lucky breaks help Tommy Fleetwood wins first European Tour title in 22 months". Golf Digest. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  12. ^ "DP World Tour Rankings - DP World Tour".
  13. ^ "Efter sjukdomsbeskedet: Marcus Kinhult pausar golfkarriären" [After the Illness notice: Kinhult takes a break from his golf career]. Golfbladet.se (in Swedish). 14 April 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Kinhult på banan igen: "Nästan gåshudskänsla"" [Kinhult back on the course again "Almost goosebumps feeling"]. Aftonbladet.se (in Swedish). 25 May 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  15. ^ "More Golf MasterCard Tour Results". Swedish Golf Federation. 24 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  16. ^ "Strömstaddriven". Golfdata and Swedish Golf Federation. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Blågula segrar".
  18. ^ "Marcus Kinhult". World Amateur Golf Ranking. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  19. ^ "Torreby Open". Golfdata and Swedish Golf Federation. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  20. ^ "European Boys' Team Championship". European Golf Association. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
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