“Positivity is my gasoline,” says Finnish golfer Timo Pessi. This high octane energy he is only too happy to share with both his friends and the new players he embraces in G4D (golf for the disabled). After a motorcycle accident 17 years ago, Timo balances the tough times with an infectious live-for-the-moment attitude, which is particularly in evidence when enjoying one of the loves of his life, golf.
A joy for what’s around him on the golf course: fresh air, nature and the peaceful freedom to absorb himself in the round, and of course getting to know other golfers since taking up the game in 2011. Indeed, as EDGA has grown in the last decade or so, so has Timo carved out his own unique role in inspiring others to try golf, while offering significant practical support to some.
In various guises he has been the welcoming party, a brother to many, and wise counsellor to those finding their way.
He is a competitive player, winning last season the Stableford category of the Finnish Disabled Open. Meanwhile, at his home golf club, KanavaGolf in Vääksy, southern Finland, he has organised six golf camps for golfers with brain injuries/conditions in recent years.
When we met up with Timo at the recent 2023 RSM European Net & Stableford Play-offs in England, two other Finnish players were present who had attended his camps, recently qualifying for the Play-offs as leading players in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD), so it was exciting to meet with them at the tournament at North Hants Golf Club west of London in September. For Timo, this marked a latest highlight in a G4D tournament career that he estimates to include around 50 tournaments in different European countries.
Timo says: “Yes, it’s a big challenge, but positivity is my gasoline, so it’s easier to be positive with people. Negativity gets only bad vibes and the accident happened and you can’t reload that. Life is too short for negativity and if you stay positive the people around you will be too. Life is much better that way. Of course I have bad days, but those days I spend at home and only my family see those moments. It’s heavy for them and I love and appreciate them so much.”
Timo Pessi is from beautiful Asikkala near the city of Lahti, a place of lakes and forests (when we talk again in November on Zoom he suddenly beams a smile and uses his iPad to show us the snow all around his house). He is one of those rare people who whenever they smile at you it lifts your spirits.
They say a smile costs nothing, but it’s not so simple. Years of life experience can go into some smiles, and although most of us can help others in this way, how often do we actually do it? Timo laughs about being ‘Captain of the 19th hole’, a joker in the pack, but there is much more to him than that, another side to the coin.
The accident came when he was loving his job and his weekends playing ice hockey and ‘floorball’. He doesn’t trust his memory for all the details following the injury but he remembers the need for a lot of help.
“I must thank my parents. I was in the hospital for two months and after that I went to live with them for nearly a year, I don’t remember all of it. My Dad took me every day to hospital where I got rehab, and I was practising to walk again because I had been lying in bed for over two months. So I had to learn to walk again. It was really, really hard.”
Timo had been working in sales as a territory manager for a large pharmaceutical company. In his free time he was a good ice hockey player (and a much respected referee) but he was playing field hockey the day he had his motorbike crash; he veered off the road after a traffic collision and smashed into an electricity box.
The coma lasted two weeks. He suffered brain damage, a right arm which he has worked hard on for years but still has restricted movement; his right leg is 2cm shorter than the left because of the hit he took to his body, and he still has back problems to this day.
Seventeen years on, he often has sleep trouble, frequent memory issues; an intense fatigue can consume him like a fog; sometimes mentally exhausted for a week after he plays a golf tournament. Physically, “I’m still learning” he says. Weekly sessions take place with neurological specialists, keeping a close eye on progress over time. Timo’s brow furrows and he squints slightly when he tells us that he is now “a different person” from the man before the accident. He had to find a way to walk and move OK again, but then it was harder to learn to be OK. One of his secrets is the rest periods, a treasured retreat to his family cabin near the lake: total peace amongst the quiet nature. Recalibrate the engine, then pour in the gasoline, start again.
Before he found golf it had been a dark time he says. He lost his ice hockey, he loved the refereeing and interacting with players (he still loved being with people then). Perhaps his connection with people means even more to him now.
Timo had to find his way to be OK, but the reward has been significant, through both golf and also when destiny dealt Timo not the Joker, but an Ace of Hearts, in 2014.
“I met Nina in Thailand,” he tells us. “I was travelling with my mother for the first time in my adult life, and Nina was travelling with her mother for the first time in her adult life. We met out there but it turned out we both lived in Kerava near Helsinki, only about 50 metres away from each other. We hadn’t ever met in Finland and then we met in Thailand.
“We lived so close at home, I was living on the corner of two streets, and Nina was in the next street. I knew Thailand, the food and everything, so I was like the travel guide for Nina and her mother.”
Together for nine years, married for seven. Timo and Nina now have three children, a little girl, Peppi, aged five, and two boys, Sisu, aged three and new arrival Aamos who came along a year ago.
The second route out of his difficult time came by replacing ice hockey with another stick and ball game of skill. He started golf in 2011, thanks to his friend Jere Kourunen. He played first as a leftie (he played ice hockey that way). Living on his own at that time he practised as much as he could, getting down to a 13 handicap and looking to break 85 shots on the course. But as a natural right hander he was encouraged to change, and maybe that wasn’t his best decision but he is not sure. Today his handicap is around 23 but this he feels has as much to do with enjoying being around his young family and not practising so much.
“I used to be super-competitive, but I’ve calmed down now. Now I want to have fun first and foremost,” says Timo.
There aren’t many guarantees in the sport of golf, but if you are drawn to play with Timo Pessi you will smile during your round. At the same RSM Play-offs fixture last year (RSM being a key supporter of EDGA), on the accompanying RSM charity golf day he was chosen to play with RSM UK Partner David Gwillam and colleagues. Amidst the fun on the first tee, Timo handed out gift packs of tees and markers from the Finnish Golf Association, a generous touch which was typical of his welcoming nature.
At any golf tournament on the 19th hole (the bar and restaurant), Timo is the first to buy a round of drinks, including his favourite, a cold Guinness. When at home he loves playing at KanavaGolf, where he is on the Board of the club and a representative player since 2017. He says he loves being seen on golf courses as a ‘golfer first’, not defined by his impairment first.
Timo says: “Golf is a wonderful hobby for people with disabilities. You can exercise without being stared at or judged, in wonderful scenery. The social side is also great.
“I love it so much because I can be with friends outside in fine nature, nice places. I travel a lot. I have been all over Europe, playing in Portugal, Czech Republic, in England maybe four times.
“It’s nice to meet new people from all over the world and then meet again, all friends with EDGA. We are one big family and it’s so nice to go out of Finland and, through golf, support a lot of people who have a disability.”
Back at home Timo tends to change the pace of life; he knows each trip will fatigue him and he has his own way of dealing with it. He tells us the problem and his solution: “Mental tiredness: I need to be alone and not speak with anyone. I need very much a lonely time. Brain tiredness isn’t perhaps the same tiredness that healthy people have. It’s like you haven’t been sleeping for two nights in a row.
“When I’ve been playing golf a lot, I can’t sleep. I get over-active in my mind. Because of my brain injury I can’t play and practise as much as I’d like to. I get very tired so easily and it’s difficult to concentrate.
“Sometimes I take a boat and go to the lake and some islands and spend time alone, make a fire and cook sausage and cheese or something, stay alone. In Finland here, it’s beautiful nature, many, many lakes. And from here, my home, it’s about 100 metres to the lake, and there is a sauna and kitchen outside. So we can spend time there and swim and everything. At winter time I can go with skis and skate for fun.”
Timo is a proud Finn and is usually seen in the white and blue of his nation’s colours. He has played in the Finland national team several times in the Nations Cup, part of the European Golf Association’s Team Championship.
He is also proud of organising the player camps for players with brain injuries at his home club, and also setting up three training sessions for new players at Tuusula Golf Club in South Finland, supporting the Finnish Golf Association and Finnish HCP Golf Association, where he is vice chairman of the board.
Encouragement is his skill and he talks of encouraging a fellow Finn, Pentti Vaara, a golfer who was somewhat isolated from golfing opportunities, living near Lapland in the north of Finland.
“But then he came to my camp at KanavaGolf, and after that he began playing with more people and his life is like sunshine. Today, we are calling each other every week. Recently he was in England with me playing the RSM Play-offs. He’s enjoying it a lot.
“It makes me proud, but I like to help people. Many people with an injury stay at home. They’re staying at home, watching TV, they don’t have anything. Golf is good because it’s not so tough. It takes time, but you can play it easily and it’s not dangerous.”
Whether Timo has slept well or struggled, when he arrives in the golf club car park on tournament day ‘The Timo Pessi effect’ is witnessed almost immediately. “Hello Captain!” he calls to a gentleman parking his car. “Morning Mr Referee,” he shouts to EDGA Referee Alastair doing the same. “Beautiful car!” he calls. Introducing himself to an elderly lady readying her golf bag and sharing a joke with her, he then marches across to hug various fellow players, the ensuing laughter opening the door to something good at the club; this all feels like a welcoming place.
After Timo got knocked out of the match play in the RSM Play-offs, his first reaction was to offer to caddy for friend and fellow Finn, Simo Kosunen, who was another golfer who started at Timo’s player camp.
At 45, Timo is still looking to improve his golf and register more wins for himself.
He says: “I have been fortunate to have Ruby Chico-Kurtelius as my coach since 2022. She has an extensive international experience in both playing, teaching and coaching golf.
“During the last two years she has been able to facilitate a learning experience that is enjoyable, manageable and easy for me to take my game into the future. Ruby also made sure that the changes we made with my swing are appropriate for the limitation that I have to keep my pain to a minimum, but for me to continuously improve despite the limited movements.”
Next year Timo hopes to play in the Nations Cup, in Germany, and to try to win the Finnish Disabled Open again. But Timo doesn’t tend to plan too far ahead, choosing to look after himself and his family first, and selecting his tournament trips carefully.
“At the moment I want to thank my wife because she takes care of the whole family, three children and me. So big thanks for Nina. Without her I couldn’t play, I don’t think. I don’t know how I would survive. The doctor has said to me that without the family, I couldn’t live alone. I could be in hospital. I don’t know. I need their help very much.”
As we conclude our chat on Zoom, we get to wave hello to Nina and baby Aamos who is wearing a fine looking padded outfit. Clearly, the fortune in which Nina and Timo met on the other side of the world shows that in life, anything is possible. A loving family, and the positive respect Timo has earned from hundreds of fellow golfers, has all helped him to look to the positive in life, and of course, Timo has also had to help himself to be OK and continue going well. Positivity is like gasoline right? Where shall we all go to next?
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