Kalle Samooja, 35, gets to compete in golf’s oldest and perhaps most prestigious tournament, The Open in England, for the first time in his career.
Kalle Samoa didn’t even fit into the top 50 after the opening round with a result of +2, but three top rounds after that propelled the man from Turku to a combined result of -11 and a shared fourth place in the European tour competition in Denmark.
The Finn had set his main goal in the tournament to reach the legendary The Open tournament, which starts on July 20, and will be played this year at Royel Liverpool Golf Club.
The three best players from the top 10 in the Danish tournament, who did not already have a major tournament chain, got the last places in The Open, which is also called the British Open Championship tournament.
– I feel good now. It was the agenda for the day, and actually the whole week, to forcefully join The Open. A good and up-and-coming race, in which I managed to get it out of myself. However, this has been one of my goals all season, emphasized Samooja to .
In Sunday’s final round, Samoa scored -3. Five birkkus and two bogies were marked on the card.
– Those bogeys came from bad openings. However, there were places and some near-miss putts, but that’s how golf always is. In a way, it wasn’t a top round from me. Kärki was a little bit ahead of the curve in the tournament, so the top run would have had a chance to even win today, Samooja estimates.
To win the competition, a total score of -13 was needed, which Spain was able to achieve Nacho Elvira (69+62+66+70) and Denmark Rasmus Höjgaard (68+70+65+64). Samoa (72+66+64+67) was only two strokes behind them.
“Quarterly place warms you up, but you always want to win until the very end,” emphasized the Finn, who conquered the competition of the European Tour in Hamburg last June and claimed the main pot of almost 300,000 euros.
Samooja thought that when you get to practice golf more in the summer – also at home – it’s often easier for Finns to get in shape for the summer and the rest of the season.
“The Open’s course is supposed to be hard as asphalt”
Samoa has the Scottish Open tournament of the European tour next week on the calendar. However, his trip will now be extended by one week, with The Open starting on July 20.
– From here we fly directly to Edinburgh. That race is a good preparation for the Open, because the conditions are pretty much the same. The Open is challenging when the field is supposed to be asphalt hard there. The game is then quite different compared to this normal golf.
Samooja says the Scottish Open is more indicative of what can be expected at The Open due to the different court conditions. In his opinion, the current performance is not directly comparable to the legendary major tournament played in Liverpool.
– Of course, when the game slips and the statistics look good, then you can go with a good mood towards the next battles.
Samooja says that based on the statistics, his playing has been the best of his entire season from the tee to the green. To his displeasure, however, so far it has been simply bad.
– The putting was average here in Denmark, but here was still the end result. If the putting was flaming, then maybe I would raise the jugs.
Thirteen years as a professional golfer, the prodigy revealed one thing that was the reason for his brilliant mood at the end of the week.
– I changed to a new putter on Wednesday afternoon, and it immediately felt pretty nice in the hand. It brought such relaxation to working on the greens. Now it was as if I got more power out of the machine.
Among the Finns, a place in the last major tournament of the season, The Open, which starts in a week and a half, has also previously been claimed by South Africa’s second place in Johannesburg Sami Välimäki.