LIV Golf League star Kalle Samooja admits his goal is to bounce straight back onto the roster for the 2025 season at the forthcoming Promotions event in Saudi Arabia, and the Finnish golfer is limbering up nicely after a solid first round at International Series Qatar.
The 36-year-old won the innovative event last season and was rewarded with a spot on Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks GC.
Things didn’t quite go to plan however, as he wound up in the drop zone after managing just two top-20s across the season.
Samooja is tuning up for another shot at the big time in Riyadh from 12-14 December, and thanks to The International Series he has two weeks to tune up and two ways to earn a return.
He can either win the LIV Golf Promotions event or even secure a place by winning The International Series Rankings outright.
To do that, he needs big performances in Qatar this weekend and at next week’s season-ending PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Financial Advisers, which has a bumper 1,000 rankings points for the winner.
Samooja started his mini-campaign well, with a solid three-under-par round on day one at Doha Golf Club, and he said: “My goal is to get back through the LIV Golf Promotions event again.
It meant a lot, but unfortunately, I didn’t play my best this season. But yes, I think I have more to give, and hopefully I can get my card back somehow from the LIV Golf Promotions event again.
“Golf wise the quality is great (the LIV Golf League). There are a lot of top-quality guys, and the courses are great, really good venues, good events overall. The crowds are good. They treat your family well so no bad words at all.
“You can’t really think ahead of your game. So the only thing we need is to get the job done and then enjoy the ride – that’s the best way to describe it.”
Samooja, who played alongside two-time major champion Kaymer, two-time senior major winner Richard Bland and rising star Adrian Meronk from Poland said: “We had a fun team at Cleeks GC, we all got along very well. So yes, I kind of feel sad to leave the team, but hopefully I get back somehow.”
Samooja, who became the sixth Finnish golfer to claim victory on the European Tour with his triumph at the 2022 Porsche European Open, reflected on his round and shared his enthusiasm for returning to Qatar for this week’s penultimate event on The International Series schedule.
He said: “I’ve played three events on The International Series so far and they’re good, good events. I’ve played here quite a few times before, so it’s nice to come back here.
“I’ll take that score today although I was very bad off the tee. I don’t know how many fairways I hit, maybe three or four. It’s not a course you can play well from the rough so I’m kind of pleased with the score, I’ll need to do some work on the range this afternoon.”
International Series Qatar is the ninth of 10 events on this year’s schedule, offering 450 valuable points to the champion.
For tickets and further information about International Series Qatar, please visit www.internationalseries.com.
