Name Riikka Hakkarainen | Role Golfer | |
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Riikka Hakkarainen (born 23 May 1977) is a professional golfer who plays Ladies European Tour and owns Golf Performance, a personal training and coaching business in Mayfair, London and Helsinki, Finland.
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Amateur career
Hakkarainen was born in Espoo, Finland. She played for the Finnish National Ladies Team since she was 15 years of age. She won the Nordic Girls Championship twice in 1995 and 1996, Scottish girls stroke play Championship in 1996 and Greece Ladies Championship in 1996, became 3rd in British Girls Championship in 1995 and represented Finland in the 1994 and 1996 Espirito Santo Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships.
Professional career
Hakkarainen turned professional in very early age of 19 in 1996 in many peoples mind too early but she always thought it was important next step for her career. She claimed her maiden victory in the Nedbank Women's Golf Tour in South Africa 2002 and continued playing strong on Swedish Telia Tour winning two tournaments Swedish Match Play and Öijared Ladies Open as well as the Telia Tour's Order of the Merit for the season. She claimed her maiden victory on the Ladies European Tour in Tenerife 2006 and continued playing strong throughout the season posting additional 5 top 10 finishes and finishing 9th on the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit for the season. She started to experience balance problems during her best season which forced her to retire from competitive tournament golf in middle of the 2007 season for two years.
At the start of 2005 she teamed with Minea Blomqvist to represent Finland at the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf.
At the start of 2006 she again teamed with Minea Blomqvist to represent Finland at the Women's World Cup of Golf. In 2007 Hakkarainen was forced to retire of the competitive golf due to balance problems.
In 2009 Hakkarainen made a come back to Ladies European Tour after two years of sickness mystery and her best finish was 5th on the Spanish Ladies Open.
Personal
Hakkarainen is considered as a "Pioneer of Finnish golf" after a long and successful career. She moved to London, UK in 2010 and still plays few tournaments a year. She owns and runs Golf Performance, personal training and coaching business Golf Performance in Mayfair, London and Helsinki, Finland.
Ladies European (1)
Other (3)
Team appearances
Amateur
Professional