Koepka chasing first pro win and pole position in Challenge Tour rankings

Chase Koepka is looking to go where no Koepka has gone before by winning the Hainan Open and topping the European Challenge rankings.

The American secured his European Tour card for 2017 with a second-place finish in his last start at the Kazakhstan Open, where Koepka narrowly lost out in a three-hole playoff against Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, and is now fourth on the Road to Oman. That runner-up finish was the second of the season for Koepka, who has been in the top five on five occasions this term – and has missed just three cuts in 14 starts on the Challenge Tour.

Koepka is still hungry and wants a first professional victory. With 34,000 points separating him from Road to Oman leader Pulkkanen, the 23-yearold knows a win in one of the lucrative end-of-season events can make him the 2017 Challenge Tour No 1 – which would be a new achievement for the Koepka family.

“My goal is to win the Rankings so I need to knuckle down and catch Tapio,” said Koepka, whose brother Brooks graduated on to the European Tour after winning three times on the Challenge Tour in 2013.

“The year Brooks played he quit after nine events and still finished third in the rankings, so it would be great to finish first at the end of the year.

“I have had to change my goals every couple of months

0 Chase Koepka: Ambitious. as it has been a really good year for me. At the start of the year I didn’t really have a good category and I was just getting in on a few invites.

“My aim was just to make it to Kazakhstan and then it changed to getting in to the top 15 and then to winning. It was great going home after Kazakhstan and having two weeks with my family – we all went to the President’s Cup to go and see my brother play.

“I put in a lot of hours on the range as well though as I am really focused on trying to win the Road to Oman as that can open so many doors for you.”

Joining Koepka on the Chinese island are 13 of the current top 15 on the Road to Oman, including Bradley Neil who currently lies 13th in the rankings. Fellow Scots Jack Doherty, Ross Kellett and Grant Forrest will also tee it up at Sanya Luhuitou Golf Club today.