Korhonen edges ahead in Amsterdam

Stimpmeter · June 21, 2024, 6:45pm

Mikko Korhonen took an unconventional route to a 68 as he moved into the solo lead heading into the weekend at the KLM Open.

The Finn made a hole-in-one en route to a share of the lead on day one and he added every score from two to seven in round two to move to 10 under.

That left him one shot clear of American Sean Crocker, who carded a 67, and two ahead of English duo Ross Fisher and James Morrison.

Dane Rasmus Højgaard matched the lowest round of the day with a 65 to sit at seven under alongside England’s Matthew Baldwin, Scot Ewen Ferguson, American Nicolo Galletti, Italian Matteo Manassero and German Matti Schmid.

South Africa’s Thomas Aiken shared 11th position on six under after carding 67, with Jaco Prinsloo and Jayden Schaper a further two strokes behind.

Korhonen is a two-time winner on the DP World Tour but his appearance at last month’s Soudal Open was his first in 12 months and this is just the third event of his comeback from a spell out.

A holed nine iron from 137 yards was the highlight of a second round that also contained six birdies, two bogeys and a triple, and the 43-year-old was happy to be back on Tour.

“I had a little adventure in the long stuff and the I holed a nine iron so lots of things happened,” he said.

“I didn’t really expect anything. It’s just my third event coming out of a year’s medical so not much expectation but I’m happy to be here and happy to play well.

“The golf course is nice, I like it. It’s rewarding good drives. There’s a couple of blind shots so you have to really commit to the tee-shots. It’s linksy but it’s not running that fast yet.”

Korhonen took advantage of the par-five 3rd after laying up and holed from just off the green at the 5th but bogeyed the 8th after a ragged drive.

An approach to 11 feet at the next then kicked off a hat-trick of birdies as he put irons inside eight feet at the 10th and 11th but he gave all those shots back at the next, needing three attempts to get out of some nasty rough.

That spectacular nine iron at the 14th repaired some of the damage and he was four clear after a two-putt birdie on the par-five next but he three-putted the 17th.

Crocker also made the most of the 3rd with two putts and put a tee-shot to 14 feet at the next but three-putted the 5th.

He then put on an excellent approach display on the back nine, putting irons inside 15 feet on the 10th, 14th and 17th to move up the leaderboard.

Morrison birdied four of his first seven holes and while he added three more gains, he also dropped four shots in a 68.

Countryman Fisher won this event in 2007 for the first of his five DP World Tour titles and he birdied three of his last four holes in a second consecutive 67.

Højgaard was on course to go very low before a bogey-bogey finish, while Ferguson and Galletti carded rounds of 66, Baldwin and Schmid both signed for 67s and co overnight leader Manassero followed a 64 with a 71.

– Edited report from DP World Tour website

Photo: Octavio Passos/Getty Images

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