Andrew's Finnish Challenge (HPT) Preview

The Irish Challenge did not work out as I expected. This has been a very tough season to predict on the HPT, and I’m not alone in having better results on the KFT, but flipping heck, I didn’t see South African domination coming to County Meath. Nor did I see slap-hitting veteran Justin Harding walking away with a win on one of the longest courses on the rotation, a week after finishing thirtieth in Scotland (that following two missed cuts.) Of course I’m aware of his pedigree, but still, it wasn’t expected. Let’s hope we see something a bit more in line with expectations this week.

The Tournament

The next event (and there are still four more before this hard-working tour gets a break) is the venerable Finnish Challenge, held for a few years in the noughties and then every year (except for a lockdown interruption) since 2012. We’ve been at the current host, the Cooke Course in Vierumaki, since 2016, so there’s no excuse for players and gamblers not understanding the challenge. This is an event I didn’t preview last year.

Vierumaki is not in Helsinki, unusual for something happening in Finland in my experience. We’re just north of Lahti, about 120km (call it 75 miles) north of the capital. It is going to be surprisingly nice weather, which deals with one potential problem. I don’t have any data on flies, but anyone who has been to Finland in August will confirm that players had better plan for mosquitoes in quantity. They have a decided taste for human flesh, the buggers. Anyway, that aside, this is a delightful spot and should be a good week.

The course itself is not especially challenging. It is an orthodox par-72, playing to just under 7,100 yards and with an opening and closing par-five, though the final hole is 585 yards long and played a hair over par on the final round last year. In general, this is a course where scoring is easiest in the first half of each nine, and the finishing stretch is notably tough. David Law was a model of consistency last year, showing 271 (-17) after an opening 54 to win by two from Jonas Blixt and Alfie Plant on a leaderboard where experience showed at a premium. Something similar could be said for Christopher Blomstrand (who beat Alexander Levy, John Parry and Jack Senior in 2024) but in easier conditions in 2023, Lauri Ruuska shot a record 257 (-27) to win by seven. 

Apart from general golfiing experience, it seems Scandinavians do have an advantage (Kim Koivu in 2018 joins Ruuska as the sole home winners but there have also been three Swedes and a Dane, with many more taking high order.) Links experience and skill also appears to show up well – Alfie Plant is a runner up, as is Jack McDonald (who was also ninth behind Law last year) and a young Robert MacIntyre. With winds low, I’m not sure the links link (you know what I mean) will be especially pronounced, and I’m expecting this flat, pine-tree lined course to play fairly straightforwardly. Streaky putting, accuracy from tee to green, course experience, local knowledge and a little bit of nous sounds like the winning recipe to me.

The Selections

First on my shortlist is a bit of a wildcard. Kalle Samooja is a golfer I’ve always rated more highly than most, and for all he’s just 38 his playing career appears to be winding down, helped by an abortive year on LIV in 2024. Before that, he was a solid DPWT player, winning the European Open at Green Eagle in 2022 and adding 15 more top tens from 132 starts. He won at this level in 2018, in Hainan, en route to winning his DPWT card that season. So, he’s youngish, talented, and playing down at the HPT level. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s not played competitive golf since June 2025 (he missed the cut in two HPT events and an International Series event last year, as well as finishing 26^th in the IS event in Macau.) Is he classy enough to win here? Or at least match his fifth place from his last start, in 2018? I have no idea – but I think he has a better chance than his price suggests. Class will out.

More logically, I think this is a great opportunity for Dan Erickson, the young American who is returning from a break to make a run at getting a DPWT card from a truncated season (this will be his 12^th start at this level.) He was sixth in the Raiffiesenbank on his last start, and boasts a second in the Challenge de Espana on a fairly similar course. It’s no secret that I think that this sweet-swinging son of Atlanta is a class above most on this tour and in a weak year for the HPT, I don’t think this price reflects his ability. It is notable that his best performances last year came on tree-lined resort courses in Germany and Turkey – and in Singapore where there are no trees but otherwise not dissimilar. He’s at his best playing straightforward golf, can score heavily on par-fives and can putt the lights out. Returning from a break brings questions of a different kind but I believe he’ll win a card, and that run has to start soon. If he’s ready he can make a mockery of these odds.

Finally, Sam Jones is a player I’ve been watching as he returns towards his best form. He’s a powerful young Kiwi who opened a lot of people’s eyes with his sole season on the DPWT in 2024, and it was a surprise that he didn’t shine dropped to HPT level last year. Although he only make the cut here last year (he was 66^th) he was sixth in the Dormy Open at a similar course in Sweden and he arrives here in better form, with an eye-catching 15^th in Ireland that looked even stronger before a poor final round. Like my other selections, he comes with risks – he simply hasn’t been consistent at this level and lacks elite course form – but I think we can continue to expect surprises and I don’t see a regular winner or a consistent level of performance from the market leaders in this field and am keen to take them on with three more speculative selections.

• Dan Erickson, 66/1, 1pt e/w, 1/4 odds 5 places, Bet365

• Sam Jones, 80/1, 1pt e/w, 1/5 odds 6 places, Fitzdares

• Kalle Samooja, 140/1, 1pt e/w, 1/4 odds 5 places, Bet365