Olafur Loftsson became the first Icelandic player to tee it up on the PGA Tour on Thursday and his history-making round went well.
Loftsson puts Icelandic golf on the map in Wyndham Championship
Olafur Loftsson became the first Icelandic player to tee it up on the PGA Tour on Thursday and his history-making round was a big success.
Loftsson received a sponsor's exemption for this week's Wyndham Championship in North Carolina after winning a local amateur event and, despite a double bogey at his opening hole, he made an excellent recovery. Four birdies and no further blemishes saw him card a two-under 68 and sit just five shots off the lead.
He said: "After the first hole, even though I made a double bogey, I felt a little bit relaxed, now I can start playing some golf and now I can do my thing.
"And I think after that, after I made par on 11 and made birdies on 13 and 14 my confidence was very high and I felt very comfortable out there all day."
Loftsson was introduced to the game by his parents back in Iceland but soon realised that the climate there meant he couldn't achieve his goals.
"Golf in Iceland is a little bit different than from here. We have about 60 to 70 golf courses in Iceland, lot of links style courses. But you can't play golf all year around in Iceland. To play on the European or PGA Tour you have to practice all year-round.
"The best opportunity for me was to go to college here in the States. So I found myself a school here in Division III to start with and worked my way up and am now at UNC-Charlotte in Division I. It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm very excited about the future."
A couple of TV crews have come over from Iceland to cover his progress this week and Loftsson revealed that golf is big news back home.
Popular
"It's the second most popular sport in Iceland behind soccer and it's growing very fast. A lot of the population now plays golf," said the 23-year-old.
"It's very popular for youngsters now and we're seeing a lot of potential players rising these days.
"We have a lot of great coaches in Iceland and we're getting more and more educated people to teach the game of golf in Iceland and basically through a lot of hard work, a lot of practice, we had the opportunity to practice indoors during the wintertime.
"It may not always be fun, it may be tough sometimes but you get through the tough times and the great times certainly make up for it."
Loftsson, like a lot of Icelandic golfers, is quick to cash in during the summer nights when it never gets dark and once played 64 holes in a day.
"I love playing golf and to be able to play golf 24/7 in Iceland late in June on a good day when it's calm outside and you can play all day long.
"I've played a lot of rounds at night-time in Iceland, the wind usually dies down and it is just pretty spectacular."
His opening 68 at Sedgefield on Thursday left him tied 40th and on track to make the cut - some feat for an amateur player from a country with a population of only 320,000.
"I'm very excited to be able to represent Iceland here and kind of show the world that we do play golf in Iceland and we can be pretty darn good," said Loftsson.
"It's just a lot of fun. I'm going to enjoy these few days and enjoy this experience and try to learn as much as I can because I intend to be here in the future."
