Anssi Kankkonen

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Anssi Kankkonen
Personal information
Born (1968-10-11) 11 October 1968 (age 54)
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

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

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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.
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