Kalle

Samooja

The 34-year-old Samooja started the final round at Green Eagle Golf Courses seven shots back, but he carded a bogey-free, 8-under 64 to finish at 6-under 282 for a two-stroke win over Netherland’s Wil Besseling. “It is truly special,” said Samooja, who won in 89th DPWT start. “It’s been a long journey. I’ve been close a few times. We had a number in mind today and we reached that. We thought it might be enough and it was a long two-hour wait at the clubhouse, seeing the guys battle it out. In the end, fortunately it was enough.” On the season, Samooja has made six cuts in 12 DPWT starts, with a T-5 at the Qatar Masters in March. The Finn will be joined in the field at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., by Thorbjorn Olesen, Sam Horsfield and Victor Perez, all of whom won titles at the other three qualifying events for the U.S. Open (Betfred British Masters, Soudal Open and Dutch Open. Making it into the field by finishing top 10 in the series via points are Ryan Fox, Sebastian Soderberg, Besseling, Yannik Paul, Richard Mansell and Marcel Schneider.

The 33-year-old shot 64-66-66 to share a one-shot lead with Germany’s Nicolai Von Dellingshausen going into the final round, but Samooja finished with a 69 Sunday to tie for third. It marked his best finish in seven starts this season (four cuts made) and was also his second top 5 in 2021: Samooja posted a T-4 at the Dubai Desert Classic in January. The finish bumped him from No. 131 to 113 in the OWGR. Last season, Samooja made 10 of 17 cuts, highlighted by a solo second at Cyprus Open in October, third place at the Qatar Masters last March and one top 10 – a T-9 at the Scottish Open. Samooja has captured one victory on the European Challenge Tour, at the 2018 Hainan Open.

The 32-year-old, a solidly impressive rookie on the ET last year, was present on the final green last week in Oman when Sami Valimaki claimed victory and perhaps there was an element of motivation this week. In truth, it seemed that began the day too far back to contend, and yet with unsteady leaders he had a chance, however his run was always a little too sedate. Or so it seemed. His front nine was the more impressive, witnessing ticks at the second, eight and ninth against the one bogey at the fifth. Coming home he made it three birdies in four holes with a tick at the 12th and then got stuck into the tough closing stretch at Education City GC in Doha. He dropped a shot at the 15th, but made par elsewhere and he will rue that late error because ultimately he was just the one blow out of the play-off between Jorge Campillo and David Drysdale, tied with Niklas Lemke and Jeff Winther.

That’s just one swing back from joint-leaders Stephen Gallacher and Rasmus Hojgaard. The Finn bogeyed No. 1 but then took flight, playing the next 12 holes in 9-under via birdies at 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 13 along with eagle-3 at the 12th. That took him to double digits under par but he gave three shots back at the par-4 15th after taking seven swings. He responded with birdie at the next and added a walk-off circle at 18 to complete his lowest round since a 62 in round three of September’s European Masters. Today’s 65 is something of a contrast to his Friday score in this event last year when he fired 81 (in much tougher conditions it has to be said).

Now the Finn returns to the track hoping to confirm that his 2019 was no flash in the pan. Ahead of that season he was 3-for-9 with not one top 30 at this level. That turned to 4-for-13, still with no top 30, when he arrived at this course 12 months ago. He then opened 66-70-68 to lie T5 after 54 holes before a 71 earned him T16. He added another five top 20s in the regular season which earned him a crack at the big money end-of-season events and he landed T17 at the Turkish Airlines Open and T10 in the Nedbank Challenge, not quite enough to earn a spot in the DP World Tour Championship. He opened 2020 with a missed cut last week.

It’s been some effort in 2019 from the 31-year-old Finn, who had never given much hint on the second tier Challenge Tour that he had it in him to finish as high as his current ET ranking of 75th. It’s an effort that has been built on an early confidence boosting T16 in the Dubai Desert Classic, T6 in the Kenya Open and topped and tailed by play-off defeat in the European Masters. He’s also added T18 in the Open de France and T21 at the Portugal Masters in his last two starts. He’s never played in Belek on the European Tour yet has done so four times on the CT, never this track however. Perhaps it’s just as well – his record at those other venues is a lowly T52-MC-MC-MC.

The Finn had shot into contention at Crans-sur-Sierre with a 62 in Saturday’s third round although started poorly today with an opening bogey and six pars. A run of red numbers at 8, 9, 12 and 13 got him into contention although he’ll probably look back at his failure to birdie the back-to-back par 5s at 14 and 15. At the first extra hole, Samooja could only make par to winner Sebastian Soderberg’s birdie. This is his best finish and just second top ten in 31 European Tour starts. His other was also at altitude when T6 at the Kenya Open earlier this year so perhaps keep an eye on him for events played way above sea level.

It’s the 17th hole-in-one on the European Tour this season and the Finn’s second after he made his first at March’s Indian Open. It came at 15 although the 17th would have offered the bigger instant reward as the hole-in-one prize on The Renaissance Club’s penultimate hole is a BMW worth €89,000. Samooja made just a single birdie on his opening nine but then turned on the turbos after the turn with par breakers at 10 and 11 before following his ace at 15 with further gains at 16 and 17. Today’s 64 matches his low round of the season which came in the Magical Kenya Open where he finished T6, his only top ten of the campaign. He’d arrived in Scotland on the back of five MCs.

A third missed cut in a row last week for the Finn who prior to that has impressed somewhat in his first season at this level. Moreover two of his best efforts – T6 at the Kenya Open and T18 at the Indian Open – were on tracks that called for accurate driving of the ball, as this week will do too. In Spain we have little to go on. He’s 4-for-7, all on the Challenge Tour, but among that set of results he very nearly won the Challenge de Espana and qualified fifth for the knockout stages of the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Matchplay 9 in 2017.

The Finn will start the final round two swings back of the co-leaders Adri Arnaus and Guido Migliozzi after flying through the field in rounds two and three after an opening 70. He made an early birdie at the second but then added bogeys at the third and fourth (he’s played those two holes in 5-over this week). No matter, he then ticked the sixth and seventh (which he has played in 6-over through 54 holes). The real drama came on the back nine: birdies at the 10th, 13th, 15th and 17th; eagle-3 at the 12th. The potential for Sunday is massive. He has only 17 previous starts on the European Tour and a best of T16 in this year’s Dubai Desert Classic, his only top 30. That effort does provide him some food for thought: He was T5 heading into the final lap so the memories might be instructive.