Sihwan Kim\u2019s incredible run of form on the European Challenge Tour continued at the Finnish Challenge as the Korean carded an eight under par opening round of 64 to move into a share of the lead, alongside Sweden\u2019s Niklas Lemke.<\/p>\n
Kim\u2019s runner-up finish at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge last week, where he was leading after the second and third rounds, rounded off a stunning July for the 24 year old as he recorded a third top five in four tournaments, finishing top 20 in the other.<\/p>\n
And the Orlando-based player\u2019s purple patch showed no signs of slowing in August as he carded two eagles – including one at the par four sixth, where he holed out from 150 yards – and six birdies en route to the top at Kyt\u00e4j\u00e4 Golf, in Hyvink\u00e4\u00e4 near Helsinki.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a great month last month and I just want to keep it going,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing a lot so I’m getting used to the courses out here and getting used to playing regularly, not worrying too much about how my swing looks and just trying to find something.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t hit it too well today but I kept it near the hole and made some putts. Then I had the two at the sixth, with an eight iron, and that helped me out quite a bit. I’m getting used to seeing the ball dropping in the hole and that helps me visualise my putts so that\u2019s a big bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim is one of many young stars to have come from the collegiate circuit in the USA to begin professional life on the Challenge Tour. Having watched the likes of Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein make the breakthrough onto The European Tour this year, the former Stanford University man is even more determined to make his mark in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see those guys with their names pretty high up on the leaderboard on The European Tour and it definitely motivates me to push a little harder,\u201d said Kim.<\/p>\n
Lemke joined Kim at the summit much later in the day as he also signed for an eight under par round. The 29 year old racked up eight birdies without dropping a single shot, but he admitted afterwards that he had not even played to the best of his ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played pretty good from the start but to be honest I never really hit it great,\u201d said the Gothenburg man, who claimed his first top ten of the Challenge Tour season at the Mugello Tuscany Open two weeks ago. \u201cI just putted well and everything just seemed to work out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a day of low scoring in benign and soft conditions at the beautiful Kyt\u00e4j\u00e4 Golf, Challenge Tour debutant Brandon Stone was among the five players just a shot off the lead on seven under par.<\/p>\n
The South African, who is widely tipped for big things after an impressive college career in the USA, got his first appearance on the tour off to a perfect start as he opened with three birdies on the trot.<\/p>\n
The 20 year old carded four more birdies in a bogey-free round of 65 to move into tied second place, alongside Englishman Tyrrell Hatton – who also signed for a flawless seven under par round – Welshman Stuart Manley, Scotland\u2019s Duncan Stewart and Jens Fahrbring of Sweden.<\/p>\n
Photo: \u00a9golfari.fi\/Kai Kilappa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sihwan Kim\u2019s incredible run of form on the European Challenge Tour continued at the Finnish Challenge as the Korean carded an eight under par opening round of 64 to move into a share of the lead, alongside Sweden\u2019s Niklas Lemke. Kim\u2019s runner-up finish at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge last week, where he was leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}