For Alice Johansson, the similarities between her hometown of Bollnäs, Sweden and Pullman, Wash., are numerous.
During this cold and snowy February morning, one is especially evident.
“This is Sweden weather,” she said.
While staying warm inside the Washington State University Golf Office at the Bohler Athletic Complex, Johansson, a sophomore on the Washington State golf team, is thankful for another similarity.
“Everything is so close here,” she said “I’m also from a small town in Sweden. It’s similar to here. I can walk to everything.”
One of the facilities Johansson can walk to is the indoor golf facility, a venue receiving good use during the winter weather; however, Johansson and her teammates know that warmer weather is on the horizon.
“Everyone is excited to get going again,” she said of the upcoming spring season.
As Johansson prepares for the spring, she looks back on a fall season highlighted by back-to-back victories.
The first win occurred at the opening tournament of the season, the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in Kentucky, in early September.
In the opening round, Johansson struggled from the tee but managed her short game well to salvage a four-over 76.
“I made a lot of up and downs during the first round,” Johansson said. “It wasn’t my best game, and I knew I could play better.”
After the round, Johansson met with Coach Kevin Tucker on the practice range to, as she explained, “get in another mindset.”
“A lot of it was getting her to understand that tomorrow’s a new day and not to worry too much about what happened in the first round,” Tucker said.
In addition, Tucker worked with Johansson on her tee shots.
“She was concerned how she hit the ball off the tee in the first round,” Tucker said.
The work paid immediate dividends when Johansson fired a second-round score of 4-under 68 to vault into a tie for third.
The next day, Johansson picked up where she left off, beginning the final round with a birdie.
“This is going to be my day,” Johansson remembered thinking after the birdie.
As she played her final holes, and in the midst of a packed leaderboard, Johansson knew she had to finish strong to have a chance to win.
On the penultimate hole, she hit her approach shot to within a foot from the cup, resulting in a tap-in birdie.
“Stepping up to last hole I was a little bit nervous,” she admitted.
However, the work put in the day before paid off…
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