Tapio Pulkkanen

Pulkkanen was born in Kotka, 130 kilometres east of Helsinki in southern Finland. Introduced to the game by his brother, he began playing golf at age 9 at Kymen Golf on the island of Mussalö outside Kotka. At 12 years old, he made his first hole-in-one. At 14 years of age, he quit soccer, to concentrate on golf. He has described that he had a group of boys to practice and compete with at his home club and at the same time, in contrast to a team sport, was responsible for his own game.[2]

At age 16, Pulkkanen represented his country abroad for the first time, at the European Young Masters in Austria. The year after, he played for Finland at the European Boys' Team Championship in Denmark. His last year as a junior, he won the Finnish Junior Championship. He also won the Finnish Championship twice.[2]

During his amateur years, Pulkkanen represented Finland at the European Amateur Team Championship three times[3] and at the Eisenhower Trophy twice.[4] At the 2011 European Amateur Team Championship, Pulkkanen finished tied 7th individually in the stroke-play competition, against a 120-man field, which included future European Tour winners Thomas Pieters, Alexander Lévy, Adrián Otaegui and Andy Sullivan. The Finnish team won their last game against Ireland to finish 7th in the championship.

In 2012, still an amateur, he won a professional tournament on the Nordic Golf League, the Finnish Open at Vuosaari Golf.

Pulkkanen's best ranking on the World Amateur Golf Ranking was 46th.[5]

Pulkkanen turned professional in early 2013 and was runner-up in his first tournament on the Challenge Tour, the Challenge de Madrid in April.[6] The remainder of 2013 and 2014 were disappointing with a best finish of 34th place.

Pulkkanen played on the Nordic Golf League in 2015, won five events and headed the Order Of Merit. The return to the Challenge Tour in 2016 was again a disappointment with a best finish of 30th place. His 2017 Challenge Tour season started with a second place in the Turkish Airlines Challenge,[7] followed up with another runner-up finish in the D+D Real Czech Challenge.[8] Later in the year he had his first win, taking the Kazakhstan Open after a playoff with Chase Koepka.[9] He finished first in the 2017 Challenge Tour Order of Merit to earn his European Tour card for 2018.

In December 2017, Pulkkanen was tied for third in the Joburg Open, level with Shaun Norris. The event was part of the Open Qualifying Series, with three places available to the 2018 Open Championship. Norris received the entry because he had a higher world ranking, 192 to Pulkkanen's 197.[10] Later in the 2017–18 European Tour season, Pulkkanen earned his biggest paycheck at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the three championship courses of Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews Old Course in Scotland, finishing 4th for €208,728.

Pulkkanen is coached by Tommi Nousiainen and his agent is Johan Elliot at Sportyard International in Stockholm, Sweden. His main equipment sponsor is Callaway.[2]

Amateur

• European Boys' Team Championship (representing Finland): 2007, 2008[11]
• European Amateur Team Championship (representing Finland): 2009, 2010, 2011
• Eisenhower Trophy (representing Finland): 2010, 2012
• St Andrews Trophy (representing the Continent of Europe): 2012 (winners)

• 2017 Challenge Tour graduates

• Official website
• Tapio Pulkkanen at the European Tour official site
• Tapio Pulkkanen at the Golfdata official site (in Swedish)
• Tapio Pulkkanen at the Official World Golf Ranking official site