[1] Väinölä's family moved to a new house adjacent to a golf course when he was two years old, and he took up the game when he was four.

An all-round sportsman, he gave up golf when he was 13 to concentrate on tennis but he returned to the game at 17 and went on to play for his native Finland, winning the Finnish Amateur, the Greek Open Amateur and the European Club Cup.

On the 1997 European Tour, his best finish was T5 in the Benson & Hedges International Open at the Oxfordshire Golf Club, seven strokes behind winner Bernhard Langer.

[4] As one of Finland's few playing professionals on the European Tour, he had no difficulty in attracting sponsors.

[1] Väinölä represented Finland twice at the World Cup, in 1995 together with Anssi Kankkonen and in 2000 with Mikael Piltz.