Golf in Finland
| Finnish Golf Union | |
| General Secretary: | Risto Korpela |
| Address: | |
| Radiokatu 20, FIN-00093 SLU, FINLAND |
|
| Telephone Number: | + 358 9 3481 2520 |
| Fax Number: | + 358 9 147145 |
| Email: | office@golf.fi |
| Website: | www.golf.fi |
| Coaching Director: | Juha Juvonen |
| Mobile: | +358 40 5615863 |
| Email: | juha.juvonen@golf.fi |
| Championship Coordinator: |
Mika Wikström |
| Mobile: | +358 400-739 877 |
| Email: | mika.wikstrom@golf.fi |
Finland is a golf country. Nowadays the country's 128 golf clubs have altogether over 132 000 members. Every 40th Finn plays golf! The number of golfers has still been growing rapidly: by 5 to 15 percent in recent years. During the season 2008 Finnish golf clubs got over 7 000 new members. Such figures were normal during the global golf boom in 90's - but are unfortunately today rare elsewhere in the western world.
Finland found golf rather late. Helsinki Golf Club (Helsingin Golfklubi) was founded in 1932 and the Finnish Golf Union in 1957. The success story started during 80's and has continued since and now there are golf courses - altogether over 150 - in every part of the country, from the west archipelago and Aland to capital area of Helsinki and up to the north and Lappland.
Many of the courses are championship standard and during the past decades Finland has hosted several Ladies' European Tour and Challenge Tour events as well as European Amateur Championships. In the near future Kokkola Golf Club in Ostrobothnia will be the venue for European Girls' Team Championship July 7th - 11th 2009. Linna Golf and Aulanko Golf will host European Amateur Championship for men in Hämeenlinna area 100 km north of Helsinki in 2010.
Several internationally known golf architects and designers have been working in Finland, i.a. Graham Cooke, Ronald Fream, David Jones, Tim Lobb, Thomas McBroom, Robert Trent Jones Jr, Jan Sederholm. The standard of the Finnish designers and the pioneering environmental and sustainable model programs for golf courses has been recognized also abroad.
 Minea Blomqvist |
Many wins... and more to come
The greatest Finnish success so far in amateur golf is Mikko Ilonen's British Amateur Championship title from the year 2000 at Royal Liverpool. The breakthrough in the amateur circuit was made earlier during 1990's: the team of Finland took the fifth place in The Eisenhower Trophy (World Amateur Team Championship) in Philippines 1996 and in Chile 1998 alike.
Finland had a few players on the European professional tours already in the 1990's. Greatest success has followed Ilonen's footsteps. He turned professional in 2001 and immediately showed talent by finishing tied ninth in The Open Championship. Ilonen was also the first Finn to win on The European Tour, when he captured two titles in 2007. The same year Finland tied with Spain for 13th place in the World Cup in Mission Hills China.
During the last years Finland has had 3-7 players on The Ladies European Tour, where Minea Blomqvist has won twice and Riikka Hakkarainen once. Blomqvist is also the holder of the lowest round score played in major tournaments. Blomqvist played a round of 62 in Women’s British Open year 2004.
Finnair Masters has been part of the Ladies European Tour schedule since 2005 and has always been played on the Helsinki Golf Club. In 2008 there was a memorable fight on the homesoil between the Finns for the title: Minea Blomqvist took the first price, Ursula Wikström the second.
Mikko Ilonen sinking the winning putt of The Scandinavian Masters at the Arlandastad Golf Club year 2007.
