Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir | April. 19. 2012 | 18:18

Introducing: Icelanders who play on US College Golfteams no.1 – Ólafía Þórunn Kristinsdóttir

There are 12 Icelanders, who currently play on US College Golfteams. One of them is Ólafía Þórunn Kristinsdóttir. Golf 1 will now start an introduction of these young Icelandic talents. Ólafía Þórunn is on the Wake Forest golfteam and a.o. played some fantastic golf at the ACC Women´s Golf Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in North-Carolina. The tournament was held last weekend April 13th-April 15th 2012.  Participants were 45 from 9 US Colleges.

Ólafía Þórunn finished T-2 with a score of  +3 over par, 226 strokes(70 78 68)… which was an excellent result taking into account the extremely fast greens at Sedgefield.

Who is this young 19 year old from Iceland?  This past fall, just a few days before Ólafía Þórunn went to study and play golf  a.o. with  teammate Cheyenne Woods, Tiger´s niece and the others on the Wake Forest golfteam, Golf 1 interviewed her. There are so many famous golfers, who have studied and played golf at Wake Forest; among the most known are Arnold Palmer, Webb Simpson and Bill Haas.

In the year 2011 Ólafía Þórunn had a fantastic summer in Iceland winning both the Icelandic Match Play and Stroke Play Championship plus becoming Club Champion at her Club here in Iceland, the Golf Club of Reykjavík (GR) and becoming Icelandic Champion along with her team, GR, at the Icelandic Ladies Club Championship.

Here goes the interview with Ólafía Þórunn:

Name: Ólafía Þórunn Kristinsdóttir.

Where and when were you born?   I was born in Reykjavík, October 15th 1992.

Where were you raised?   I grew up in Mosfellsbær and lived two years in Denmark when I was litle.

What is your family status and does anyone in your family play golf? I live at home with my parents and am the youngest of 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Everyone, except my sisters play golf.

When did you start playing golf?  I went to a golf clinic 10 years old and I played in my first tournament 12 years old.

Why did you start playing golf? Because most of my family was playing golf.

What is your occupation? I am a student at Wake Forest, North-Carolina, in the US of A.

How do you like Wake Forest? It´s great, I´m having incredible fun. I look forward to studying at Wake and then to coming home (to Iceland). I am having fun all year round.

What is so great about Wake Forest? It´s one of the best Colleges in the States for practicing golf, but also academically. The Campus is small and one can walk around everywhere, and the college area is safe.

What is Cheyenne Woods, Tiger´s niece like?  She is great. She is one of my best friends there. Cheyenne is incredibly nice and forth coming… and then she is a clever golfer. She is ready to become a pro, but she is going to finish her studies at Wake first.

How much time do you spend practicing golf?  On a school day I´m 1 hour in the gym and 4 hrs. practicing golf.

How is a typical school day?  I wake up at 6:30  and I´m in the Gym at  7. School starts at 8 and it differs a bit when I´m done usually around 12 or 14 o´clock. Then I grab something to eat and afterwards hit the practice area. There- after we practice and afterwards I´ll have something to eat again. Around 19:00 I have to do some studying and we have tutors, who assist us.

Did you have a culture shock coming from Iceland to the States? Well, I thought it was little to hot for me in the beginning and there were many subjects on the  schedule there was much to do and that was hard.

Is there a difference in the golfcourses in the States and here in Iceland? Yes, there are more parkland courses in the States and the courses (in the States) are in much better shape.

What do you prefer parkland og links type course? I don´t know. I like both.

What do you prefer match play og stroke play? I like both, but there should be more match play competitions. 

What are your favorite golfcourses in Iceland? Grafarholt golfcourse and Kiðjaberg golfcourse (The latter one is especially scenic and will be introduced later this summer here on Golf 1).

What is your favorite golfcourse anywhere in the world? There is one golfcourse in California, which I have played, but I don´t remember the name of it. Well I guess I´ll just go with TPC Sawgrass.

What was your score on the 17th at TPC Sawgrass? Did you hit the green? Yes but the pin was right in the sunday position. I struck it to the left and then I threeputted.

What is the most special golfcourse you have played on and why? That was the golfcourse of Þorlákshöfn, because it is a black sand golfcourse and there is no bunker on the whole course.

What is your handicap?   0,1.

What is your lowest score and on which golfcourse did you achieve it?  That was a- 2 under par at Hólmsvöllur í Leiru golfcourse in the summer 2011. (Well this interview was taken last fall and since then Ólafía Þórunn has bettered her best score i.e. in the abovementioned ACC Women´s Golf Championship, where she played the last round at a score of  -3 under par.)

What is your longest drive?   That was a 320 meter/350 yards drive on Hvaleyrin (The Golf Club Keili´s golfcourse in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland.  I had a lot of tailwind and the fairways were fast.

What is your greatest achievement in golf to this date? To become Icelandic Champion in Match Play and Stroke Play. The year 2011 was a good year for me. It was also the first time I became Club Champion (in Iceland´s largest Golf Club), since it was the first time I participated.  The year 2011 is also my first year were I didn´t play on both the Icelandic Junior Golf Tour presented by Arionbanki and the Icelandic Tour, presented by Eimskip so I could use the time, practice more and I was more relaxed.

Have you ever scored a hole in one?  No.

What snack do you have in the bag?   I usually have a tuna sandwich and water and I eat a bite of dark chocolate on every third hole I play.

Have you participated in any other sports?   Yes, I played badminton and played handball with Fylkir and Fram (Icelandic Sportsteams).

What is your favorite food, favorite drink, favorite music, favorite movie and favorite book? My favorite food is lobster, I don´t know what to say about the favorite drink part, my favorite music is something slow, with Coldplay, John Mayer or Jón Jóns (an Icelandic singer); my favorite movies are Disturbia, Speed and Titanic and my favorite book is Silence of the Grave by Icelandic Crime Author Arnaldur Indriðason.

Who are your favorite golfer name 1 male and 1 female?   Female.:  Cheyenne Woods and Michelle Shin. Male:  Birgir Leifur Hafþórsson, Alfreð Brynjar Kristinsson (my brother) and Ernie Els.

What´s in the bag, what is your favorite club and why is that club your favorite one?  In my bag are Titleist Vokey wedges 60°, 56° and 52°   Titleist AP2 clubs,  my Edel putter, an Exotic rescue club and my 4-tree. Then I have a Titleist DComp 10,5° driver and some sort of stiff shaft on all of my clubs. My favorite club is my putter. It has Olafia written on it and it´s my favorite club because it´s the most important club in the bag.

Have you been to a golfinstructor? Yes, I´ve had so many lessons with so many instructors, for example Árni Páll and Brynjar Eldon – they are both great.

Are you superstitious? No, yet still… if I´m playing and everything is going my way then I try not to change anything and keep the same relaxed mode.

What is your maingoal in golf and life? My main goal in golf is to get further – on some tour abroad, but I haven´t decided whether I would rather like to play in Europe or the US. My maingoal in life is to be happy and true to myself.

What do you like the best about golf? How challenging it is and difficult at times and how many great people play golf.

How large a percentage do you estimate that the mental side of your game is when you compete? About 80%.

At last: Do you have some good advice that you can give golfers? Yes, practice well, but don´t go and practice if you´re not in the mood because then you don´t get much out of it. One has to practice right and the most important thing is to have fun.