Pros advice

Mikko Korhonen beat the clock as he blew away the field in the Shot Clock Masters at Diamond County Club in Austria.

Finland’s Mikko Korhonen claimed his first European Tour title as he eased to a six-shot win at the Shot Clock Masters in Austria.

Starting the final round with a five-shot lead, Korhonen made five birdies on his way to a round of 69 while having to battle two weather delays.

The 37-year-old was fortunate to get away with a couple of hooked drives, but the Finn managed to bounce back with birdies after the two bogeys he did make.

After a superb birdie at the 13th hole, Korhonen parred his final five holes with relative ease to lift the trophy at Diamond Country Club.

Congratulations @Karhanen!

The #ShotClockMasters Champion 🏆 pic.twitter.com/IVehWP5qis

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 10, 2018

Next best was Scotland’s Connor Syme, who drained a huge birdie putt on the final green to bag himself the biggest payday of his young career so far.

Talking point

Well, did the shot clock succeed in speeding up play?

The fastest round on Thursday was a brisk 3 hours 53 minutes. The average third-round time was 4 hours 10 minutes. To put that into perspective, the third-round last year took 30 minutes longer.

The answer? A resounding yes.

In total, there were four time violations over the four days. Clemens Prader, Grant Forrest, Markus Brier and Oscar Stark all fell afoul of the shot clock.

Given that players could call for a time extension twice during a round, we’ll ask the question: how did they let this happen?

Will we see shot clocks in future events?

Enjoy the walk Mikko 👋 pic.twitter.com/rTBKDnqLGO

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 10, 2018

What a putt! And look how much it means to him!@connor_syme is on cloud nine 😊 pic.twitter.com/5ZujdLJSGC

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 10, 2018