Jan 11, 2019: The assembled writers were sent scrambling to the PGA TOUR media guide after Canadian Adam Svensson found his way to the top of the leaderboard at the Sony Open in Hawaii. India’s Anirban Lahiri shot three birdies and a lone bogey to card two-under-par 68 and lying at T29.
It happens sometimes at the beginning of seasons as the new rookie class finds its feet – some of them haven’t found a way into the mainstream consciousness yet.
Keen followers of the Web.com Tour know the 25-year-old greenhorn won The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic about a year ago and leveraged that into a PGA TOUR card.
But even they might not know the story that caught the eye of the scribes who awaited him after his career low 9-under 61 at Waialae Country Club gave him a one-shot lead.
It wasn’t the fact Svensson recorded nine individual titles and played on two NCAA Division II championship teams at Barry University in Miami.
Or that he claimed the Phil Mickelson Award as Division II’s Most Outstanding Freshman in 2013 or the Division II Jack Nicklaus Award in 2014.
Instead it was one that revolves around his first golfing memory.
“I was three or four years old and my dad was teeing off and I guess I decided to drive the cart right into the lake,” Svensson said of his toddler days.
“Well I drove it in and then I hopped out and my dad was trying to grab his clubs and stuff like that, but it ended up sinking to the bottom.”
Svensson said his dad was able to rescue his driver and putter but that was it and to this day it is a story his dad remembers, and perhaps recounts, most.
Perhaps in a few days he will have a stronger one to draw on.
Source: PGA Tour
