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Some tour pros do not touch a club over their short summer vacations. Others play games on their old home courses as Anna Nordqvist did. "Incredibly generous. Very typical of Anna,"said Jan Peterson, the Club Chief of Torshälla Golf Club in Eskiltuna, Sweden.
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Last spring, Torshälla Golf Club had an unfortunate incident occur when one of the club's members had a heart attack on the course. Thanks to the resourceful efforts of two other players, they managed to save the member's life, but the incident prompted the club to act.

"We decided to buy defibrillator and train all our staff in CPR in order to cope with similar incidents in future. In addition, we quickly implemented ia series of golf events in which the profits would go to fund a heart starter," says Jan Peterson, the club chief at Torshälla Golf Club.

111 participants responded to the deserving cause, one of them was none other than the club'smember on  summer vacation, Major winner and LPGA professional, Anna Nordqvist.

"She called last week and said she wanted to play. She is grew up with and knows many of the older members who may be at risk and she wanted to support it, "said Peterson.

Anna was placed in the same ball with the affected member, who is now back on the golf course, and with the two men who saved him.

"The most important thing is not that I'm home and playing, it's that they can purchase the defibrillator. That is why I am here," said Anna afterward to the Eskilstunatidningen Folket  (a newspaper from Eskiltuna, Sweden).

Nordqvist played from the yellow tees and went around in 70, two under par.

Photo: Lennart Nyström

Earlier this year, Annika Sorenstam was named by the association, Swedes Worldwide (SVIV) as the "International Swede of theYear". She comes to Stockholm to receive her prize on August 19, 2010. The award is given annually to a Swede who has made significant efforts for Sweden abroad and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will present the award to Annika during a ceremony in conjunction with SVIV’s annual conference.

"Annika Sörenstam is one of the foremost female athletes in the world in history. Annika has, by winning innumerable international games over a 15-year period, become the dominating personality in women’s golf. She has represented the Swedish athletic movement around the world in a terrific way. She has also become a role model for the younger generation through her dedication and purpose-driven training, her personality and generosity. Annika is an excellent ambassador for Sweden and Swedish athletes,” the Award Jury wrote in its nomination.

“Annika was a nomination that needed no discussion on the board — a unanimous vote that made some board members stand up and applaud and take a club-less golf swing, some good, some not so good,” said Steve Trygg. He is a member of SVIV’s Board of Directors and the organization’s local representative in New York.

Annika Sörenstam retired from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season after having won 90 international tournaments as a professional. She made history in 2003 at the Bank of America Colonial tournament when she became the first woman to play in a men’s PGA Tour event since 1945.

"It is really nice that Annika will take time from her busy schedule to personally receive the prize," says the SVIVs Secretary Karin Ehnbom-Palmquist.

The prize will be awarded this year at the Conference's "Atlantic Crossing" in the Business House on Main Street 19, Stockholm, this Friday, August 19th.

"The conference will focus on the cultural differences between Sweden and the United States, and on how to work with them. It is especially nice to celebrate Annika as one who has so successfully represented Sweden in the USA and around the world," explained Ehnbom-Palmquist .

With a bogey on the last hole, Carin Koch, the 39-year-old professional golfer from Gothenburg, signed her scorecard, and spoke surprisingly well about the other 17 holes on Thursday's first round of the Ricoh Women's British Open being played at Royal Birkdale. "I played great and drove the ball well. I made some great putts a few times to save par when I was about to make bogey.

The even round of 72 placed Koch among the top 20, four strokes behind leader Yani Tseng. A review of Carin Koch's season in the major statistics is pretty sparse. In fact, she has only played in seven competitions this year - compared with the 14 she logged at the same time in 2007.

There are several reasons for this. First, she is playing mainly on the Ladies European Tour, where the tournaments are fewer in number. Koch also took off a few weeks off around midsummer into early July to, as she says, "Get a really long summer holiday which is the usual for Swedes". Mainly she just wanted to spend more time with the family.

"I didn't mind being away from the family so much earlier in my career. However, my sons are eleven and seven now, and I feel these are important years where they need to have a mother at home for them. When I go to the U.S. to play, I must be away for three to four weeks and it sometimes does not work. It feels a lot better for me to play in Europe, and to be able to travel back home on Sunday evening - then go out again on Tuesday or Wednesday," says Koch.

It is also helps to feel a deeper appreciation for the game and life on the road during the weeks spent away from home. Just as she does here in Southport, England where she just relaxes with the DVD of the Swedish movie, "Solsiden" in her hotel room.

"It is a bit more relaxed now. It's fun to show myself that I still have it in me, and I try to get out there more often. The last years I have found it really difficult to find the motivation, but continued to play and play. I had to re-think everything and decide whether I should stop or go on. There is no need to continue going around and playing if you don't think it's fun."

Kass swing
A recent collaboration with coach Graham Crisp is starting to pay off for Koch. They are finalizing different details now, but they also work a lot with the whole swing movement.

"The swing was scrapped some years ago. I had played poorly and had no confidence and didn't trust the movement. We have not done much about it and are trying to get back to what works. I think I hit the ball better today then I ever have. Then there is the short game, which also is gonna need some work.

She intends to keep on competing as long as it feels good. But there are also thoughts about maybe coaching other golfers in the winter.

"I think a lot about what you can do on the side. I hope to find something else that will take over a bit, so I don't have to put as much time in  playing and practicing. I might go and learn some training methods, do some lectures or provide some coaching to share with players what I have learned over the years."

When asked if she would work with players on the tour or all types of golfers, Koch laughed and said, "Those who pay the best;" adding that she has not thought it out that far.

It would seem she has the first rule of business down already.

Original text by Eric Franzen for Golf.se

Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images Europe

One of the good guys in Swedish golf is Joakim Haeggman. You will be hard put to find anyone more enthusiastic about playing the game of golf. Swedish Golf Online is a little biased about Joakim, as we have had the pleasure of witnessing that passion first hand. We were in the same group with Haeggman at a casual scramble event. Not only was he sociable, but his patience with the amateurs he played with (like me) was greatly appreciated. He was as excited about a good shot as any of we golfers are. He was generous with his time and his stories and anecdotes of the Tour life. Knowing this man is a pleasure indeed.

He has played on the tour for over 20 years. He is as one of three Swedish players who have won the Scandinavian Masters. He has won on the Challenge Tour and the Asian Tour. But now, Joakim Haeggman, is reaching the back side of his career as he formulates plans for his future. His tour status has been uncertain for some time. Is it time to take a new road?  He doesn't know, but he is clear about one objective: he will play full time on the European Tour again.

In 2008, Haeggman spent a year on the Challenge Tour, but that is something he will not go back to. The car travel to events on bad golf courses, with little prize money and no audience was not working for him. He felt no "buzz" so it is no longer an option. Now, it's all or nothing.
"I want to come back and play golf at the Tour level. Otherwise,for my part,this may be it," he says. When you go out on the driving range in the morning and realize that half of the players could be my kids. No, it's not for me.

The player from Kalmar, Sweden has just logged his third round at the Scandinavian Masters out on a windy Bro Hof and he is not very happy with his round. Still, he's happy to play the contest and is looking forward to Sunday's round. Although he is far down the leader board, Haeggman knows that as a former winner of the tournament, he has some allure to attract an audience even though he starts playing early in the morning. It is on the Big Tour that he needs to be.

"I'll play damn well in the qualifiers in the autumn, so I will be back on tour again. Maybe I should qualify for the U.S. tour this fall, as well.

What if the the qualifying route doesn't work out, what then?

"I don't know. I have still a number of competitions on the European Tour that I get to play. So, I must decide if I can let it go or not."

After suffering an injury, he is now in great physical shape. Or as great a shape one who is 40 plus can be after playing golf at the highest level for over 20 years. He laughed a bit at the position he and friends such as Jesper Parnevik and Per Ulrik Johansson are now in.

"We have been playing for some years now, and it is beginning to affect us. This spring, it was a broken vertebra in Jesper's back and the synovial fluid leaked into the buttocks and the sciatic nerve. I got so-called foot drop, and walked around like a pensioner. But I'm back to me, again.

The health is only temporary,he well knows. The question is how long can the body go?

"The problem is that it breaks down in the gym. It breaks when you practice. A drive bends the bones in the back. You jump wrong and there goes a calf muscle."

But right now he is feeling good about everything and now will pay some Challenge Tour Races this fall to tune-up  the game before European Tour qualifying. And qualifying for the U.S. Tour? 

We'll let you know.

Edited from the original story in Golf.se by Karin Klarström