Markku "Näppis" Leinonen ends his gruelling golf marathon with a guard of honour

Nationwide trek closes with two rounds of 77 in Kytäjä

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By Jussi-Pekka Reponen at Kytäjä Golf, Hyvinkää
     
      The middle-aged man bends over and taps in a short formality of a putt for par on the 18th hole, picks out the ball, and turns to shake hands with his playing partners.
      Nothing very special about that, unless of course the round of golf is preceded by more than 150 others, played in the space of 65 days, at clubs up and down the entire country.
      Then things take on a different hue, and explain why the reception the player received was pretty much like a guard of honour, with clubs standing in for swords or rifles.
     
When Markku “Näppis” Leinonen ended his unique “Näppis On Tour” nationwide golf marathon on Thursday evening at the South East course of Kytäjä Golf’s 36-hole complex, he was joined on the 18th tee by Finland’s most successful golf professional, European Tour player Mikko Ilonen, and by two other leading pros in Tuomas Tuovinen and Jaakko Mäkitalo.
      Leinonen played the whole of his final round in the company of Timo Laitinen, the President of the Finnish Sports Federation.
      Earlier in the day, he had been accompanied on the other Kytäjä course - North West - by ice hockey icon Raimo Helminen.
     
In spite of the weight on his legs of more than 2,700 holes of golf in the previous eleven weeks, Markku Leinonen showed off his excellent amateur skills to the end, closing with two rounds of 77, coming very close to his official handicap of 5.2.
      At the last he saw a 5-metre putt for birdie lip out, and he had a simple tap-in for his par four.
      The event was witnessed by a decent crowd of a couple of hundred golf enthusiasts gathered around the 18th green, who gave Näppis a rousing ovation for his efforts.
     
Leinonen, an unemployed lumberjack from Paltamo in Kainuu, played all of Finland’s “official” golf courses (and a few more besides) in the space of eleven weeks from May 20th.
      He started his marathon round with an 84 at Helsinki Golf Club in Tali, the oldest club in the country (founded in 1932), and ended fittingly at Kytäjä, which has widely been rated as Finland’s best course since it was opened in 2003.
     
“Oh yes, it was definitely worth doing. Now I have a certain sense of relief that it is over. At times it was a tad stressful, when we were in a bit of a rush to get from one place to another for tee-times”, responds Leinonen in his broad Kainuu dialect to the hackneyed sports journalists’ question of “How do you feel now?”.
      Many may wonder how a 48-year-old man’s body stands up to the test of stomping more than a thousand kilometres around the country’s golf courses dragging a trolley and bag.
      Before he embarked on his marathon, Näppis went for a medical at the Finnish Sports Institute in Vierumäki, which reported that he was in excellent basic shape for a man of his age. He later returned to Vierumäki, by the way, to play the two courses there.
     
“It wasn’t really such a tough exercise. I mean, there were some quieter days in between”, says Näppis in his customary modest fashion.
      Considering that on many days he faced 54 holes at least and a start at 6:00 am, and he finished his rounds in the late evening, the understatement is obvious.
      He has no specific plans for a closing party.
      "Do you think one really needs to celebrate this in any special way? Maybe if I could go have a meal. Anyway, tomorrow I guess I’d better go play back home in Paltamo”, Leinonen said after his last round.
     
During his travels up and down Finland, Näppis’s itinerary took in a few courses that are off-limits to most.
      On Tuesday of last week, he was invited to play the nine-hole layout built by volunteers in the 1980s on the coastal artillery fortress island of Isosaari, which belongs to the Finnish Defence Forces.
      Owing to the military nature of the site, the course is seldom played by outsiders, despite being handily located just 10 kilometres from the centre of the capital.
     
From Isosaari he was ferried to the private course at Bökars, near Porvoo, which is owned by Amer Sports, the Finnish sports equipment company whose brands include Wilson golf clubs, balls, and accessories.
      Fortunately, Leinonen uses a set of well-worn Wilson Staff Sam Snead irons, so he will have felt right at home.
      That same evening, by way of a direct contrast, he took on the “everyman” courses in Laajasalo (Helsinki) and Löfkulla (Espoo). At Laajasalo Leinonen actually chalked up a course record, taking just 15 strokes to get around the six par-three holes.
     
Everywhere he went, Näppis generated great enthusiasm and a very positive atmosphere. He was fêted and treated like a distinguished guest.
      There was also a good deal of media exposure. Helsingin Sanomat ran a lengthy article on his endeavours in the July edition of the Kuukausiliite monthly supplement.
      On the Golfpiste.com web portal, which followed his journey, four out of five of those who responded to a questionnaire were of the opinion that Näppis On Tour was having either a very positive (52%) or positive (30%) impact on the public image of the sport.
     
The brains behind the idea and the practical arrangements, Suomen Golf Digest’s editor-in-chief Teemu Tyry, was delighted with how things turned out.
      “This was a really nice story. The courses and the people all around Finland took a very positive attitude towards Näppis and his playing. Näppis has all the right stuff in him to become a kind of everyday hero”, said Tyry.
     
And right there is part of the story: if he can break down the obstinate belief that golf is a snobs’ game only played by elderly well-to-do men who drive Jaguars and are signally lacking in dress sense, then Markku Leinonen’s pilgrimage around Finland will have been more than just a personal triumph.
      For after a late start, Finland now has so many golf courses that they cannot survive on the rich alone - they will need more and more ordinary Näppis types to stay afloat.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.8.2008
     

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: More than 1,000 kilometres in the same pair of shoes

Links:
  Golfpiste: Näppis on Tour (in Finnish)

JUSSI-PEKKA REPONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi-pekka.reponen@hs.fi