(Story courtesy of the Oglethorpe University website)
ATLANTA, Ga. - Former Oglethorpe golfing great Olafur Loftsson, who guided the Stormy Petrels to their first ever NCAA Championship in May 2009, earned an invitation to compete in the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship held this weekend at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Loftsson, who now plays under scholarship as a senior for UNC-Charlotte, will compete at the PGA Tour event as an amateur after earning the invite by winning the prestigious Cardinal Amateur in Greensboro this past weekend. He fired a final round 65 to win the event by four strokes and clinch his chance to compete against the sport's best this weekend.
Loftsson came to Oglethorpe on a foreign student exchange program as a sophomore in the fall of 2008 and was scheduled to return to Iceland following the academic year. His performance on the golf course, however, caught the eye several Division I schools with available golf scholarships. Head coach Jim Owen made phone calls on Olafur's behalf and it wasn't long before the "Iceman", as he was affectionately known by teammates, had landed a full ride to compete for the 49ers of UNC-Charlotte.
In May of 2009, Loftsson, then a sophomore transfer from Gardabaer, Iceland, won medalist honors and the Arnold Palmer Player-of-the-Year distinction by leading Oglethorpe to the Division III National Championship.
The Wyndham Championship begins on Thursday and will be broadcast from on the Golf Channel from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. both Thursday and Friday. If he is fortunate enough to survive the cut, Loftsson could be viewed on CBS this Saturday and Sunday from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. To view the Championship website with links to a live updating leaderboard, go here.
