Meet Sami Valimaki: Finnish Pro’s Career Achievement & Life Outside Golf Explored

A successful amateur career, military service, and some memorable moments have shaped the life of Sami Valimaki so far. Valimaki is in his 20s and competing on professional greens, fulfilling his childhood dream. However, despite being a professional golfer, he also has interests in other sports as well.

Having experienced both highs and lows in his life, what factors influenced Valimaki’s decision to pursue golf? And what does his path to professional golf look like? Let’s find out!

What does the personal life of Sami Valimaki look like?

The golf world knows Sami Valimaki for his achievements and appearances on the greens so far. Despite being a pro golfer with 18k+ followers on Instagram, he is very private about his personal life. Valimaki was born on May 23, 1998, in Nokia, Finland, and possibly spent his early life there. Although there is no information about his parents, it’s believed that they got him into golf, and he isn’t the only athlete in his family.

The golfer has a cousin, Juuso Valimaki, a defenseman for the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL. Interestingly, the 25-year-old golfer shares a passion for ice hockey, the NHL, and basketball. His enthusiasm for these sports is evident from his habit of listening to numerous podcasts about them while traveling, as reported by Golf Monthly.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Valimaki currently lives in Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland. There is no confirmation about his marriage; he is engaged to Emilia Gustafsson. The pair got engaged on December 16th, 2021, and since then, the golfer has been posting pictures with her on Instagram. Valimaki also enjoys deserts and mountains, often accompanied by his fiancée during his travels to appreciate these landscapes.

In his country, there is a mandatory rule that every able-bodied and able-minded young man has to serve once in the military, and it was the same for the golfer as well. He turned pro in 2019, after completing his mandatory military service at the end of 2018. Interestingly, in 2018, he also played amateur golf, represented Finland at the 2018 European Amateur Team Championship, and defeated England. Speaking of amateur golf, how does his time there look?

Valimaki’s amateur journey before joining professional golf

During his time as an amateur golfer, Sami Valimaki was one of Finland’s best golf talents and represented his country multiple times. Starting with the Bonallack Trophy, the golfer was selected to represent Europe. It might be one of the most memorable moments for him since the tournament considers the best amateur golfers from Europe against those from Asia-Pacific, and Valimaki was a part of it.

His potential granted him another opportunity with the Continent of Europe team in the St Andrews Trophy. It was between the best amateur golfers from Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland. Following that, in 2018, the golfer contributed significantly to the European Amateur Team Championship victory.

That same year, he also competed in the 2018 Eisenhower Trophy, the world’s top amateur team golf championship. In 2017 and 2018, he also competed in Nordic Golf League events, which are part of the third tier of European golf and help golfers gain valuable experience. After spending his time as an amateur, what motivated Sami Valimaki to join the professional greens?

Professional golf was the childhood dream of Sami Valimaki

Although he likes hockey and basketball, the golfer has always dreamed of playing golf professionally. After turning pro in 2019, he revealed to the European Tour “Being a professional was always the goal for me. My parents got me into golf, and I had a couple of good friends in my home club that I grew up playing with. I started to get more competitive and play all over Finland, and then almost straightaway I was trying to make it to Europe, playing junior events and team events, and I played a lot of Nordic golf leagues as an amateur, which really helped me turn pro.” 

After turning professional, he secured victories in four international events in 2019: the Open Casa Green Golf, Starnberg Open, Extec CzechOne Open, and Castanea Resort Championship. The following year, he won the Oman Open in 2020 and represented his country at the 2020 Olympic Games. Following that, he had to wait three years until 2023 to claim the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters title.