By Joel Beall
The USGA announced Wednesday that European Tour player Mikko Korhonen has withdrawn from next week’s U.S. Open.

Korhonen, 40, had just earned a spot in the field at Torrey Pines on Tuesday as one of the top aggregate point earners in the three-event European Tour Qualifying Series. The Finland native had finished T-3 at the British Masters and T-7 at the Porsche European Open.

According to the USGA, Korhonen’s cited reason for dropping out was due to travel concerns. Korhonen is No. 185 in the Official World Golf Ranking and has two career wins on the European Tour.

Replacing Korhonen is the field is Cole Hammer from the University of Texas. Hammer (above) was the first alternate thanks to a 73-65 at the Columbus U.S. Open qualifier. Hammer competed in a 5-for-4 playoff to grab the alternate spot. Hammer, 21, will be appearing in his third U.S. Open; he made his first start in the championship at age 15 at the 2015 event at Chambers Bay. Hammer has also been a part of the past two victorious U.S. Walker Cup teams.

The U.S. Open begins June 17. Bryson DeChambeau is the defending champ.

The post European Tour player WDs from U.S. Open due to travel concerns; Walker Cup star in appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington

Coincidence. Irony. Serendipity. Call it what you will. There was plenty of something baked into the fact that the winner of the Shot Clock Masters, the tournament where taking your time costs you, was a 37-year-old journeyman who grabbed his first career European Tour title in his 146th career start.

Finland’s Mikko Korhonen had made 12 visits to European Tour Qualifying School, earning a card four times. While on tour full time since 2014, he had yet to win a title until Sunday when he closed out a six-stroke victory over Scotland’s Connor Syme at Diamond Country Club outside Vienna, Austria, with a Sunday 69.

“It feels great, beautiful. It’s been a long wait so it feels so good,” said Korhonen, who shot a 16-under 282 total. “Yes, I have thought that I might not be in this position. I’ve been up there a couple of times and couldn’t do it at those times but now I’m so happy and relieved that I have done it.”

Matthew Lewis

Korhonen would have gotten things done even quicker on Sunday if not for two weather delays that stopped play.

Suffice it to say, Korhonen did not record a slow-play penalty in the event where every player on every shot was on the clock—50 seconds allowed for the first player approach a shot in a group, 40 seconds for the rest. Only four golfers were given an extra stroke for dawdling—two nabbed for being only 1 second over the allotted time—as tour officials glowingly lauded the rapid pace of the rounds compared to the season average on tour (roughly 30 minutes quicker over the weekend).

“We’ve seen this week that this [Shot Clock] can definitely improve the game,” European Tour CEO Keith Pelley said. “It also shows that if the players get into the right mindset, then they can play quicker.”

Korhonen was praised by the usual crew in the wake of his victory, as was the entire concept of truly enforcing pace of play, with 25 referees working the clock with various groups.

Well done @Karhanen! A very well deserved victory! Today is YOUR day! And congrats to all involved at #ShotClockMasters – a brilliant concept! https://t.co/gutNSVDxK8

— Thomas Bjørn (@thomasbjorngolf) June 10, 2018

Shot clock masters looks to be another success for everyone @EuropeanTour , been a good run of new and innovative ideas since Mr pelley arrived ???

— Paul Lawrie (@PaulLawriegolf) June 10, 2018

The caveat to all this happy talk about the quick pace is the fact that the event’s field contained none of the tour’s elite players. The highest ranked golfer among those who made the cut was Wade Ormsby at No. 132, and only four golfers inside ranked 200th or better played the weekend (Korhonen was No. 200).

Moreover, only three finishers ended the day inside the top 35 on the Race to Dubai points list, with Korhonen jumping from 65th to 35th place. While the tour is to be commended for trying something like this, where the pace of play is overtly enforced, it’s little more than symbolic without the tour’s top golfers participating in the endeavour.

The post The speedy Shot Clock Masters is won by a journeyman who took 146 starts to get his first Euro Tour title appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 43-year-old Welshman took advantage of benign conditions at Doha Golf Club Thursday to fire a flawless eight birdie 64. He edged Finn Mikko Korhonen (65) while Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, England’s Nathan Kimsey and Northern Ireland’s former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell carded 66s to be two shots back.

Dredge is in the second group off the 10th tee at 6.40am Friday and knows with the breathless conditions expected to last until at least lunchtime that he has a grand opportunity to extend his lead going into the weekend.

“I’m delighted with the score today,” he said. “A bit surprised, I thought I was going to hit the ball a bit better off the tee than I did but I hit a few more fairways. I putted really well.”

Even though Dredge is expected to avoid the worst of any wind in the second round, he won’t mind if the Peter Harradine design bears its teeth over the weekend.

“I prefer it a little bit more windy. I’m a bit more used to playing the wind, I suppose. I quite like it and I get used to it around here as well. It’s quite a good challenge. The greens are always firm, so it’s always tough to get the ball close to the hole,’ said Dredge who has to go way back to the 2006 Omega European Masters for the last of his two European Tour titles.

“I understood that today, scoring was going to be good. It was the opportunity to go at more flags and get the ball a bit closer to the hole.

“Without the wind, it sort of makes it a lot easier to get the score going and get the putts in and get in with some sort of number.”

Aphibarnrat, Kimsey and McDowell had set the pace in the morning with rounds of 66 and with the wind expected to get up, it was thought they would share the first-round lead.

The winds never came, however, allowing first Korhonen and then Dredge to surge past them, The European Tour reports.

Korhonen made birdies on the 10th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 18th and first and when he added another on the fourth, he was in the lead. He then finished his round with five pars – including an excellent save on the 7th – to allow Dredge to take control.

The two-time European Tour winner turned in 33 with birdies on the 1st, 5th and 8th  and a burst of three in four holes after the turn had him right in contention. An approach to 10 feet on the 15th put him in a share and he then drove the par four 16th for another birdie and a one-shot lead.

McDowell birdied his first three holes and then added further gains on the 14th, 16th and 18th to turn in 30 before coming back in level par.

Kimsey had birdies on the 10th and 14th but came alive on the 16th tee, reeling off four in a row and then putting an approach to three feet on the 7th but he gave the shot back on the next.

Aphibarnrat had gains on the 16th, 18th and first but dropped a shot on the third before finishing with four birdies in six holes, including two to finish his round.

Belgian Thomas Detry, Irishman Paul Dunne, England’s Simon Dyson, Spaniard Nacho Elvira, Frenchman Raphaël Jacquelin, German Alexander Knappe, Swede Joakim Lagergren and South Africa’s Jaco van Zyl were five under. 

The post Dredge leads in Doha appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.