Dubai Desert Classic | 26 Jan 23 | |||||
Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters | 13 Oct 22 | |||||
Commercial Bank Qatar Masters | 24 Mar 22 | |||||
Magical Kenya Open | 03 Mar 22 | |||||
Marcus Kinhult (born 24 July 1996) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2019 Betfred British Masters.
Early life and amateur career
The son of a golf professional, Kinhult started playing the game at six years old and showed great potential. He plays at Skaftö Golfklubb, the same club as five-time European Tour winner Barry Lane and Joel Sjöholm. His younger sister Frida Kinhult is also a promising golfer, having won the 2017 European Girls' Team Championship and qualified for the 2018 Women's British Open.
In 2014 Kinhult represented Sweden at the Summer Youth Olympics and the Eisenhower Trophy and Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup. At the Summer Youth Olympics he won an individual silver and a gold in the team event. The Swedish team finished 4th in the Eisenhower Trophy with Kinhult having the 6th best individual score.
Kinhult won the 2015 Junior Invitational and the prestigious Lytham Trophy by eight shots in May 2015. He grabbed the golfing headlines in June 2015 when he led the European Tour's Nordea Masters at the halfway stage, after opening with rounds of 68 and 67. Only 18 years old, he ultimately tied for 33rd place in what was his second European Tour appearance. He was the third amateur to lead a European Tour event after 36 holes, and the first since Ireland's Shane Lowry at the 2009 Irish Open, which Lowry went on to win. In late 2015 he entered the European Tour Qualifying School. After finishing third in the second stage, he led after three rounds at the final stage, eventually settling for the 17th card. Though he had considered going to college in America, he turned professional after his success at PGA Catalunya Resort.
Professional career
2016 was a disappointing first season for Kinhult on the European Tour and he only made two cuts. Halfway through the season he dropped down to the Challenge Tour where his best performance was at the Ras Al Khaimah Golf Challenge, where he held a two-shot lead heading into final round. He eventually finished fourth. Having entered the tournament in 68th place on the Road to Oman he needed a top-three finish to qualify for the Challenge Tour Grand Final.
Kinhult had better success on the Challenge Tour in 2017. He had five top-5 finishes, earned a career best solo second at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final, and finished 5th in the Road to Oman, which gained him his European Tour card for 2018. He started the 2018 European Tour strongly and after finishing solo third at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and tied for fifth at Open de France he rose to 148 on the Official World Golf Ranking and qualified for his first major at the 2018 Open Championship, where he made the cut. Later in the season Kinhult was tied for 4th in the Portugal Masters and he ended the 2018 season 49th in the Order of Merit.
In May 2019, Kinhult secured his maiden professional victory at the Betfred British Masters. In June, at the Walton Heath sectional qualifier in Surrey, England, he qualified for the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he went on to record the lowest Sunday round of the tournament (66) to finish tied-32 in his first major on American soil.
In November 2019, Kinhult finished second in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, after losing in a playoff to Tommy Fleetwood. He finished the 2019 European Tour season 12th on the Order of Merit Race to Dubai rankings and was awarded 2019 Swedish Golfer of the Year, male and female. In January 2020, he reached a career best 81st on the Official World Golf Ranking.