Sami Valimaki is primed to make PGA Tour history at the RSM Classic

Roughly five years ago, in a piece for Golf Digest, veteran European golf writer John Huggan wrote plenty of glowing remarks about Finland's Sami Valimaki, noting how the then-22-year-old's "progress up the professional ladder has so far been remarkably swift."

And yet, so little has been written about Sami Valimaki since then. But there's a good chance that will change should the now-27-year-old win the RSM Classic on Sunday afternoon at Sea Island Golf Club.

In his article back then, Huggan compared Valimaki to Martin Kaymer, who, after qualifying for the European Tour, went on to join the PGA Tour and won two major championships, taking the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, which aren't soft tracks.

However, Valimaki’s journey has been a little different. In less than five years, he won four times on the European Pro Golf Tour (formerly the EPD Tour), which qualified him for the European Challenge Tour. Then he moved up to the DP World Tour (European Tour), and by 2023, he had finished in the top 10 there, qualifying him to play on the PGA Tour.

And before he did any of that, he was in the Finnish military for six months, where he said they practiced “shooting heads.” This week at the RSM, of course, is a little less severe a challenge than the military.

After securing his card for 2026 by finishing in a tie for second at the Worldwide Technology Challenge and then tying for 18th in Bermuda, Valimaki is now attempting to win his first PGA Tour event, which would make him the first player from Finland ever to do so. And he's certainly in good shape, as a third-round 65 put him at 19-under for the week, thus giving him a two-shot lead over Michael Thorbjornsen and Patrick Rodgers heading into Sunday's final round.

But even if he doesn't come out on top at the RSM, he's just fine, as he entered the week in the 74th position on the FedEx Cup points list, with the top 100 earning cards for next season.

What he has learned by traveling across the U.S. on the PGA Tour, in addition to seeing different courses, is how large the country is.

“For me, coming from Europe, I feel like all the states are a different country even though they're kind of under the same,” Valamaki told the media. ”I feel like there's so many different places you can go.”

He’s right about that. Perhaps for that reason, the Valimakis do not yet have a place in the States. He actually goes back and forth right now, which is undoubtedly difficult.

For Sunday, he’s just hoping for a good start to his round.

“I feel like that's kind of staying – have a couple shots clear, like the end of the front nine would be great. Just try to make the birdies and know the guys behind are coming fast,” he said about the final round.

Valamaki hopes a couple of hundred people from Nokia, Finland, will tune in to watch him try to take his next golf title. If he wins, he will probably discover that the number is much higher than that.