Anssi Kankkonen

Last updated

Anssi Kankkonen
Personal information
Born (1968-10-11) 11 October 1968 (age 55)
Lahti, Finland
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Sporting nationalityFlag of Finland.svg  Finland
Career
Turned professional1990
Former tour(s) European Tour
Challenge Tour
Professional wins4
Number of wins by tour
Challenge Tour3
Other1

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

Contents

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.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner(s)-up
14 Jun 1995 SIAB Open −1 (74-69-68-72=283)2 strokes Flag of Finland.svg Kalle Väinölä
227 Apr 1997 Alianca UAP Challenger −20 (64-63-70-71=268)Playoff Flag of Sweden.svg Fredrik Lindgren, Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Nicolas Vanhootegem
320 Jul 1997 Rolex Trophy Pro-Am −12 (66-67-72-71=276)1 stroke Flag of Norway.svg Thomas Nielsen

Challenge Tour playoff record (1–2)

No.YearTournamentOpponent(s)Result
1 1995 Himmerland Open Flag of Denmark.svg Thomas Bjørn, Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Nicolas Vanhootegem Bjørn won with birdie on first extra hole
2 1997 Open de Côte d'Ivoire Flag of Denmark.svg Knud Storgaard
31997 Alianca UAP Challenger Flag of Sweden.svg Fredrik Lindgren, Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Nicolas Vanhootegem

Nordic Golf League wins (1)

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

Source: [6]

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathias Grönberg</span> Swedish professional golfer (born 1970)

Mathias David Grönberg is a Swedish professional golfer who has played on the European Tour, PGA Tour, as well as both of their second-tier tours.

Gabriel Hjertstedt is a Swedish professional golfer. In 1997, he became the first Swede to win on the U.S.-based PGA Tour.

Greg Turner is a New Zealand professional golfer.

Toni Karjalainen is a Finnish professional golfer who formerly played on the European Tour and the Challenge Tour. He was his country's highest ranked male golfer and one of only a few Finnish golfers playing on the leading professional tours when he won twice on the Challenge Tour in 2005 and 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikko Ilonen</span> Finnish professional golfer

Mikko Ilonen is a retired Finnish professional golfer who played on the European Tour, winning five times. He is considered to be the greatest golfer from Finland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morten Hagen</span> Norwegian professional golfer

Morten Hagen is a Norwegian professional golfer. His home club is Vestfold Golfklubb.

Antti Juhani Ahokas is a Finnish professional golfer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klas Eriksson</span> Swedish professional golfer

Klas Eriksson is a Swedish professional golfer.

Riikka Hakkarainen is a Finnish professional golfer who played on the Ladies European Tour between 1998 and 2011. She won the 2006 Tenerife Ladies Open.

Magnus Persson Atlevi is a Swedish professional golfer. He competed as Magnus Persson until his marriage to Elisabeth Atlevi in 1999.

Johan Börje Ryström is a Swedish professional golfer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tapio Pulkkanen</span> Finnish professional golfer

Tapio Pulkkanen is a Finnish professional golfer, who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2015 Nordic Golf League and the 2017 Challenge Tour Order of Merit. He is known for wearing a trilby hat.

Anders Sørensen is a Danish professional golfer.

Per Haugsrud is a Norwegian professional golfer and the first Norwegian to play on the European Tour.

Kalle Väinölä is a retired Finnish professional golfer who played on the Challenge Tour and European Tour 1995–2004.

Carl Magnus Strömberg is a retired Swedish professional golfer. In 1987 he won both the Swedish Matchplay Championship and the Swedish PGA Championship before joining the Challenge Tour and later the European Tour.

Mikael Högberg is a retired Swedish professional golfer. He won the Swedish Golf Tour Order of Merit in 1990 and joined the European Tour in 1991.

Mikael Piltz is a Finnish professional golfer who played on the Challenge Tour and briefly on the European Tour.

Marc Pendariès is a French professional golfer who is a former member of the European Tour.

Marcus Helligkilde is a Danish professional golfer. In 2021, he won the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge and Swiss Challenge on the Challenge Tour and finished the season as the winner of the Challenge Tour Rankings.

References

  1. ↑ Jussila, Pentti (1998). Suomen hiihto (in Finnish). Helsinki. p. 212. ISBN   951-1-15482-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  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 page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.