Get to Know: Runar Arnorsson

Nov. 21, 2014

RÃºnar Arnorsson (HafnarfjÃ¶rÃ°ur, Iceland) played in all five of the Gophers' fall tournaments this season. GopherSports.com spoke with the freshman about his experience so far in Minnesota, and playing golf in his home country.

GopherSports: Are there a lot of 18-hole courses in Iceland?

RÃºnar Arnorsson: I'm not sure exact number, but probably around 20-25.

GS: Have you played a lot of those?

RA: Yeah, I've played probably all of them except maybe two or three.

GS: Is it common for people to play golf in the middle of the night during the midnight sun?

RA: Yeah, you can play all night if you want to. You can play for 24 hours, for a two-week period. They have a tournament in the northern part of the country in the end of June, around June 21. That's when the day is longest. They have a tournament that they start playing around midnight and play until the morning. It's usually a great time to play, no wind, so starting late around 10 or 10:30 p.m. is a great time to start.

GS: Then there are parts of the year where there is no sun.

RA: Some parts of the year, the sun is out for six hours. Some parts of the country they don't see the sun for 1-2 months. It's not dark all the time, but they don't see the sun because it's in a fjord.

GS: What are the courses like over there? What are some of the cool features?

RA: My home course, the front nine is played in a lava field. I've never played another course like that. It's fairway, then we've got a little bit of rough, then just lava. You can see it on my clubs. They have marks in them. Usually back home, people at my home club have a "lava club." It's an old club that you can hit it as hard as you can and just get a new scratch and it doesn't matter. But I just use my club and try to hit the fairway.

We have a lot of nine-hole courses, smaller courses. Even though the condition of them isn't great, the nature really sticks out so I think that's unique. You're just playing in the wild. I don't know else how to describe it. Some of them have a really good view. One course that is an island that's an 18-hole course, one of the best in Iceland, you're just playing by the sea and it's a nice view, pretty cool. Then we have a few courses that are around the capital that are pretty unique, a little different from here.

GS: What are some fun memories you have of international golf trips?

RA: I traveled to South Africa once, me and my friend, and we started travelling at Thursday morning-woke up at 4 a.m., the flight was at 7 and we were in South Africa at the hotel Friday at 4 or 5 in the afternoon so it was 36-hour travel for one tournament, and we were just doing it on our own. I've played the Eisenhower Tournament two years ago, which is the world championship, which was pretty cool. The day after the tournament, on the course we were playing there, Turkey's golf association was hosting a tournament where Tiger Woods was playing, Lee Westwood, Webb Simpson, and two or three other guys. One of the guys on my team saw Webb Simpson driving up to the course when we were finishing. That was pretty cool watching that on the TV when we got back home, seeing them play on the course we just played on three days ago.

I played once in Slovenia. That was one of the best courses I've played, one of the most beautiful. It was played in the Alps, and that was kind of cool.

GS: How did you decide to play college golf in the U.S.?

RA: A year ago, I was really looking into it and maybe I was a little bit too late, so I just put it on hold for a few weeks. I was thinking about going and playing somewhere, but I wasn't talking to anyone. But then my friend here in St. Paul from Iceland that I used to play golf with back home contacted me and said coach is looking for someone. Before I decided anything I looked at the place. I didn't come here before. I just came here to go to school so I didn't know the place. He told me everything I needed to know about the place and I trusted him and I kind of knew what I was going into. I wanted to go and then got this opportunity, and I was not going to let that go.

GS: How has your freshman experience gone so far, now that you are through the fall season?

RA: In general, they take really good care of the athletes. I don't know how it is at other schools out there. I would recommend this to anyone. If there's something you need, you talk to someone and they'll figure it out. The athletic training staff and everyone is very helpful. I didn't really know what I was going to go into with that from back home. I get stuff when I'm traveling with the international team, but here you sometimes don't have to think about it. They do it for you. They take really good care of you, and it's just been a good experience.

I know the team didn't do as well as we hoped to and, myself, I felt really in the last two tournaments I was getting to a point where I was able to play well, even though I didn't play as well as I hoped to. Looking forward to playing next semester and hopefully making a contribution to the team to do as they did last year, spring semester.

GS: You've never been here in Minnesota before this year, so you're playing a lot new courses. What is a course you like a lot in this area?

RA: I think we've played one course that's not a private course, and that was our home course. We played it once. It was a great fall. The weather was great especially in late October. We played Interlachen and the weather was no wind, 65 or 70, and it was getting pretty late so we got cold when the sun was going down. But just seeing the colors, it's a great experience and course. We played Minneapolis Golf Club. We played one in Wisconsin, Troy Burne, also a great course and Windsong, where the Gopher Invitational is held. All these courses are really good. I don't know-I've only played them once some of them so it's kind of hard to tell which one I like most. But I'd probably have to say Interlachen because I had a good day there.

GS: What are some things you like to do off the course?

RA: Bierman is almost my second home. I don't know what my home is right now: 17th (residence hall), Bierman or Iceland. I spend a lot of time here just studying. It took a lot of work and I'm still adjusting to doing everything in English, like studying and listening to every lecture in English. I like to do well in school and to do that I know I have to spend some time on it. I like to spend as much time as I can when we're practicing. I practice as much as I can and then I just spend the evening here studying. I've gotten to know people at 17th. I see them at night and then do something fun, studying with them or going out and doing something.

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