Kalle Väinölä (born 15 December 1971) is a retired Finnish

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on the

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 ...

and

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 ...

1995–2004.

Career

Väinölä's family moved to a new house adjacent to a golf course when he was two years old, and he took up the game when he was four. An all-round sportsman, he gave up golf when he was 13 to concentrate on

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

but he returned to the game at 17 and went on to play for his native Finland, winning the Finnish Amateur, the Greek Open Amateur and the European Club Cup. In 1992, he won the

EGA Trophy The EGA Trophy was an annual amateur boys' under-21 team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the continental Europe, Continent of Europe. History The match was instituted in 1967 and played every year until it was discontinued in ...

representing continental Europe along with eight players including

Thomas Bjørn Thomas Bjørn (born 18 February 1971) is a Danish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won fifteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1997 he also b ...

and

Niclas Fasth Niclas Krister Fasth (born 29 April 1972) is a Swedish professional golfer, who has won six times on the European Tour. He has finished second in the 2001 Open Championship and fourth in the 2007 U.S. Open and represented Europe winning the 20 ...

, against a Great Britain & Ireland team that included

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three men's major golf championships, major championships: The Open Championship in 2 ...

. Väinölä turned professional in 1994 and won a

Swedish Golf Tour The Swedish Golf Tour, currently titled as the Cutter & Buck Tour for sponsorship reasons, is a developmental professional golf which was formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, as well as being owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federatio ...

card, which in turn brought him a

ranking. On the

1995 Challenge Tour The 1995 Challenge Tour was the seventh season of the Challenge Tour, the official development tour to the European Tour. Schedule The following table lists official events during the 1995 season. Unofficial events The following events were s ...

, he was runner-up at the Eulen Open Galea in Spain and again at the

Siab Open The NCC Open was a golf tournament on the Swedish Golf Tour from 1984 and on the Challenge Tour from 1990. It was last played in 2001 and always held at Söderåsen Golf Club near Söderåsen National Park outside Helsingborg, Sweden Swed ...

, behind compatriot

Anssi Kankkonen Anssi Kankkonen (born 11 October 1968) is a Finnish professional golfer who played on the European Tour. Kankkonen was born in Lahti, the son of former Olympic ski jumping champion Veikko Kankkonen, and followed in his father's footsteps winnin ...

. The following year he won the Siab Open and also the La Pavoniere Challenge, finishing within the top 15 on the 1996 Challenge Tour rankings to graduate to the European Tour. On the

1997 European Tour The 1997 European Tour, titled as the 1997 PGA European Tour, was the 26th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972. Changes for 1997 There were several changes from the previous s ...

, his best finish was T5 in the

Benson & Hedges International Open The Benson & Hedges International Open was a men's professional golf tournament which was played in England. It was founded in 1971 and for its first five years it was called the Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf. It was sponsored by Benson & Hedg ...

the Oxfordshire Golf Club The Oxfordshire Golf, Hotel & Spa is a golf resort in England, that is located Southwest of Thame, Oxfordshire. It is owned and operated by Leaderboard Golf Ltd. History The golf course was designed by American golf course architect Rees Jo ...

, seven strokes behind winner

Bernhard Langer Bernhard Langer (; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first number one ranked playe ...

. As one of Finland's few playing professionals on the European Tour, he had no difficulty in attracting sponsors. Väinölä represented Finland twice at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

together with

and in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

with

Mikael Piltz Mikael Piltz (born 10 May 1967) is a Finnish professional golfer who played on the Challenge Tour and briefly on the European Tour. Career Piltz turned professional in 1989 and played on the Swedish Golf Tour. He then joined the Challenge Tour, ...

Professional wins (2)

Challenge Tour wins (2)

Challenge Tour playoff record (1–0)

Team appearances

Amateur *

(representing continental Europe): 1992 (winners) Professional *

(representing Finland):

References

External links