Getting to know Oona Vartianen

Oona Vartianen, from Turku in Finland, won the Open Generali de Strasbourg in June last year before tying for 22nd at Lalla Aicha Tour School Final Qualifying to earn her card for the 2016 Ladies European Tour.

1. Do you have a nickname your friends refer to you by? If so what is it?

I don’t have a nickname.

2. If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you take with you?

A tee, a floating golf ball and my driver

3. If you could have an unlimited storage of one thing, what would it be?

Time

4. What is your favourite activity you do when you want to relax?

Hang out with friends

5. How do you spend your time in the airports?

Browsing through social media and keeping in touch with friends.

6. What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?

Every cloud has a silver lining.

7. What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

Mämmi. It is a traditional Finnish dessert that we eat on Easter. It looks like mud and tastes weird.

8. If you had one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

Temperamental

9. Do you supports a sports team? if yes who, and what sport?

TPS Turku, ice hockey. It is my hometown’s ice hockey team.

10. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

New Zealand

11. What advice would you give to aspiring amateurs looking to turn professional?

Dream big, work hard!

12. Do you like cooking? If positive, what do you like / prefer to cook when you are at home with friends?

Learning to cook new things is fun, sushi is next on the list.

13. If you could have one celebrity follower on twitter who would it be?

Rory McIlroy

14. Tell us something you hate doing. Why?

Losing. I hate that feeling.

15. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo

16. What has been you biggest golfing achievement?

Victory in the LET Access Series event in Strasbourg.

17. What is your favourite golf course to play and why?

Valderrama Golf Club. It’s so beautiful and challenging.

18. Do you have any superstitions before playing golf?

No.

19. Age you started playing golf? Who /how did you get involved in golf?

I was 12. My parents played and got me started with the game.

20. Age you achieved your first handicap?

12

21. What is your best travel tip?

Noise cancelling headphones!

22. Your lowest ever round of golf? Where and when?

6 under at Finnish Tour Final and at Open Generali de Strasbourg on LET Access Series

23. What’s your favourite club in your bag?

Driver

24. What’s in your golf bag? And apart from clubs and golf balls?….

Ball markers, sharpie pens, 6 range ball cards and too many tokens, all to different courses.

25. What is your average driving distance?

220m

26. What tournament are you looking forward to most this season?

HLR Golf Academy Open in August. It’s a home tournament, just over an hour drive from my house.

27. If you could pick a dream fourball partner who would it be and why?

Rory McIlroy

28. What is your favourite distance to practise?

Chipping around 15 meters

29. If you could learn any language fluently, what would it be?

Spanish

30. What were your first set of golf clubs?

A Top Flite set for male beginners. I played with those until handicap 5.

31. Your team would be…

Golf coach: Tapani Saarentola

Fitness Trainer: Hemmo Kuusisto

Mental coach: Anneli Romana

Manager: Antti Roiha