JONATHAN Ã…HGREN FINISHES 3RD IN ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
The Sunshine Tour’s extended 2016/17 season concluded this past weekend at the co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at Pretoria Golf Club. Swedish player Jonathan Åhgren enjoyed a strong rookie season on the tour these past 15 months compiling a number of high finishes and a strong scoring average to finish 3rd in the Rookie of the Year title.
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Successfully navigating Q-School in December 2015, Jonathan was a model of consistency during his first season on the Sunshine Tour. He made his tour debut at the Dimension Data Pro-Am in February 2016 finishing T39 before recording his first top 5 a few weeks later in just his third event at the Zimbabwe Open. Strong results continued with top 10’s at The Zambia Open and Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge and numerous top 25 finishes.
In October 2016 Jonathan showcased his immense talent recording a string of top 10’s and failing to finish lower than 13th in 5 consecutive events (finishing 8th, 3rd, 8th, 4th and 13th respectively). During this period Jonathan showed great form and consistently shot par or better in every round and contended for his first title.
Jonathan made his European Tour debut at the South African Open in January 2017 finishing T40 and by mid-February had moved inside the top 50 on the OOM for the first time. Unfortunately his season finished in difficult circumstances shooting 3 under to miss the cut in the Joburg Open by 1 shot and falling ill in his final event of the year.
A rookie year filled with many positives, Jonathan’s final position on the OOM will ensure a number of co-sanctioned starts next season. Now enjoying downtime skiing, Jonathan returns to action on the Sunshine Tour at the Zimbabwe Open in April.
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2016/17 Season Statistics
Events – 21
Top 5 – 4
Top 10 – 7
Top 25 – 13
Scoring Average 70.52 (Rank 13)
Average Vs Par per Round -1.45 (Rank 9)
Total Above or Below Par -93 (Rank 6)
OOM – Rank 54
Rookie of the Year – Rank 3
March 05, 2017