Jesper Theodor Kennegård (born 11 July 1988) is a Swedish professional golfer and

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

player. He won the

Junior Golf World Cup The Toyota Junior Golf World Cup () is a junior golf championship held each summer in Japan for national teams of golfers 18 and under from around the globe. Qualifying events are held on six continents to determine the 12 boys’ teams and nine g ...

in 2007 and the

Nordic Golf League The Nordic Golf League is one of the third-tier men's professional golf tours, recognised by the European Tour, also known as the Satellite Tours. The top five players on the Order of Merit at the end of each season earn status to play on the seco ...

Order of Merit in 2013.

Early life and amateur career

Kennegård was born in 1988 and started playing golf at six. At six foot four, he has an imposing presence, like his father Stefan, who was a Swedish professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

er with 24 appearances for the national team in the 1980s. Kennegård was low amateur at the 2006 Scandinavian Masters, finishing T27, and had a successful career with the National Team winning several team medals. He won bronze at the 2005

European Boys' Team Championship The European Boys' Team Championship (Jean-Louis Dupont Trophy) is a European amateur team golf championship for men up to 18 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1980 and it has been played annually since. S ...

in Italy together with Nicklas Glans, Pontus Widegren, Björn Åkesson, Rasmus Åstrand and

David Lingmerth David Thomas Lingmerth (born 22 July 1987) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early life Lingmerth was born and grew up in Tranås in the province of Småland, Sweden, and is son of Thomas and Birgitta Lingmerth. He beg ...

. In 2007, he won gold at the

in Japan with Björn Åkesson, Pontus Widegren and Daniel Jennevret. He won bronze at the

2008 Eisenhower Trophy The 2008 Eisenhower Trophy took place 16–19 October at Royal Adelaide Golf Club and on the West course at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia. It was the 26th World Amateur Team Championship for the Eisenhower Trophy and the second to be ...

held at the

Royal Adelaide Golf Club The Royal Adelaide Golf Club (often referred to as Seaton) is a private Australian golf club located in the Adelaide suburb of Seaton, northwest of the city centre. The links at Seaton has been the venue for many international and interstate ...

in Australia with

Henrik Norlander Henrik Anders Norlander (born 25 March 1987) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early life Norlander was born and grew up in Danderyd, outside Stockholm, Sweden, and is son of lawyer Anders Norlander. He played both tenni ...

and Pontus Widegren. In 2010, he won silver at the

2010 European Amateur Team Championship The 2010 European Amateur Team Championship took place 6–10 July at Österåker Golf Club in Åkersberga, Sweden. It was the 28th men's golf European Amateur Team Championship. Venue The club was founded in 1988 and its Västerled course, ...

Österåker Golf Club Österåker Golf Club (Österåkers Golfklubb) is a golf club situated in Åkersberga 20 km northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. It has hosted the Compaq Open on the Ladies European Tour. History Opened in 1988 and co-designed by Sven Tumba and ...

together with Pontus Widegren,

Nils Florén Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Elias Anckers (1858–1921), Swedish naval officer * Nils Beckman (1902–19 ...

and

Robin Wingårdh Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), includ ...

. He represented the Continent of Europe in the

Jacques Léglise Trophy The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It was first played in 1977, as a one-day match before the Boys Amateur Championship, but since 1996 it has ...

twice, and in the

St Andrews Trophy The St Andrews Trophy is a biennial men's team golf tournament contested between teams of amateur golfers representing Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It takes its name from St Andrews in Scotland. It was first played in 19 ...

twice. Kennegård accepted a golf scholarship to

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

and played with the

Arizona State Sun Devils men's golf The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

team between 2007 and 2011 with some success, winning three tournaments and named a third team All-American in 2009–10. When he left, Kennegård also ranked fourth in the university's all-time scoring average, just one place below

Phil Mickelson Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) is an American professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf League. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters ...

, and two spots ahead of

Paul Casey Paul Alexander Casey (born 21 July 1977) is an English golfer who is a member of LIV Golf. He has also played on the US-based PGA Tour and the European Tour. In 2009, he achieved his highest position, third, in the Official World Golf Rankin ...

. Kennegård crowned his college career with a selection to represent Europe in the 2010 Palmer Cup, where incidentally half the team was made up of his compatriots. Sweden's Walle Danewid coached the European team for the second straight year and the team also featured

and Pontus Widegren.

Professional career

Kennegård turned professional in 2011 but was unsuccessful at the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

Q-School in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Instead, he played on the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf professional golf tours, tour in Asia except for Japan (which has its own Japan Golf Tour). It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on ...

in 2012, with a tie for sixth at the

Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters The Selangor Masters is a golf tournament on the Asian Development Tour, played in Malaysia. Originally an event on the Asian Tour, the inaugural tournament was held in 2008 at the Seri Selangor Golf Club and the prize fund was US$ The Unit ...

as his best result. He played in the

in 2013 dominating the league, winning three times in 18 starts, as well as notching up a further 10 top-10 results. Promoted to the 2014

however, he made only 2 cuts in 15 starts. In 2021, Kennegård returned to his winning ways. He won the NGL's Stockholm Trophy in June, and in August he was runner-up at the Made in Esbjerg Challenge, a

event, which helped him climb into the top-400 in the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling ...

for the first time. After rounds of 68, 68, and 67 Kennegård led the

Challenge Tour Grand Final The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final is the season-ending tour championship on the Challenge Tour. The field currently consists of the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour rankings vying for twenty European Tour cards. It has been played annually s ...

in Mallorca ahead of the final round, and was on course to earn one of the 20

cards on offer. A 77 on the final day however, meant he finished the tournament T8 and the season 27th in the rankings.

Amateur wins

* 2004 Vikingaskeppet, Bankboken Cup P16 * 2005 Haninge Junior Open * 2006 Telia Tourkval Degeberga-Widtsköfle * 2007 Alex Norén Junior Open Source:

Professional wins (5)

Nordic Golf League wins (5)

Team appearances

Amateur *

(representing Sweden): 2006, 2007 (winners) *

(representing the Continent of Europe): 2005 (winners), 2006 (winners) *

(representing the Continent of Europe): 2008, 2010 (winners) *

(representing Sweden): 2005, 2006 *

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been ...

(representing Sweden):

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958 Eisenhower Trophy, 1958, it is nam ...

(representing Sweden):

Palmer Cup The Palmer Cup is a 1200–1215 CE goblet from northern Syria or Jazira region, Jazira, and an example of early Islamic glass. It is sometimes described as "Ayyubid", since it corresponds to the time when the Ayyubids disputed control of areas of ...

(representing Europe):

Sources:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennegard, Jesper Swedish male golfers Arizona State Sun Devils men's golfers Golfers from Stockholm 1988 births Living people 21st-century Swedish sportsmen