From Stockholm to South Georgia: Vincent Norrman carves path to PGA TOUR

When Vincent Norrman made the journey to the United States to start his first year at Georgia Southwestern State University, the Swede got stuck in a snowstorm. It was January. He went into his first class as a college student, a psychology lecture, and that was the first time he was in a classroom speaking English. He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it through four years of that.

“Coming from Stockholm to South Georgia,” said Norrman, “it couldn’t be really too much more polar opposites.”

It was a big culture shock when he got there. Stockholm is Sweden’s capital. Historically beautiful. The city stretches across 14 islands. It’s the center of Sweden for politics, culture, economics and media.

With the utmost respect to Americus, Georgia – that town is just not the same.

But Norrman did alright. He got used to things and he thrived. Over his four years on the golf team, he became the school’s leader – and a frequent finder of the winner’s circle. He joined Florida State for a fifth collegiate season after the COVID-19 pandemic (he won his first event at FSU for good measure) via the transfer portal. He finished 23rd on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List as a rookie, sweating out the bubble at the finale in Omaha before securing an all-important spot in The 25.

And now he’s achieved a dream he’s been reaching for since he was a youngster, idolizing some of Sweden’s top hockey stars and working at an iconic Swedish candy shop. He’s a PGA TOUR member.

Yes, Norrman played hockey (no surprise there) until he was 15. Stanley Cup winners Peter Forsberg and Nicklas Lidstrom were his favorites, but Mats Sundin and Daniel Alfredsson were up there too. All the Swedes in the NHL were inspiring the young men from the small Nordic nation to make it to the big stage.

Norrman had some other role models in Sweden who were playing golf and he decided to quit hockey to make a pivot to the summertime sport instead. There wasn’t much to it then, except for thinking the pro golf lifestyle would be a “pretty cool” one. His sister went to college in the U.S. and that’s when he decided he wanted to go across the pond as well. He had never been to the southern part of the U.S., however, and was thinking he might have made a mistake. He was ready to quit after two weeks.

While he was adjusting to the American lifestyle, however, his golf game seemed to be doing just fine.

Darcy Donaldson has been the men’s golf head coach at Georgia Southwestern for 11 seasons. As the coach of a Division II program, he knows he can’t always nab the best players in the state over big Division I schools, so he is often seeking players from around the world.

Norrman had some “good numbers,” according to Donaldson, but there wasn’t much experience at big events that more schools were looking for. Instead, Donaldson reached out to a former player of his, another Swede, who got back to him right away.

“He said he knew exactly who I was talking about (Norrman) and said, ‘You need to get him,’” recalls Donaldson. “This is coming from a guy who is hard on himself. He doesn’t throw out a lot of compliments to other people. When he said something like that, I was like, ‘Alright!’”

It was no surprise for Donaldson to see Norrman struggle out of the gate to get adjusted to life away from home. Everyone does, he explains. They’re coming to a new place at 17 and it’s not how you grew up. You have to be in school for the majority of your day – even though you came to school to play golf. That adjustment, Donaldson said, was big for Norrman.

Donaldson, who was named the Division II National Coach of the Year for 2020-21, is a former caddie on the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour. He’s also a fine player in his own right, a nine-time collegiate winner at Division II Concord University who was named an All-American in 2006. He’s the first to admit he’s not a swing coach, but he has been up close with the best in the world and has seen habits and processes that have helped golfers get to the biggest stages in the sport.

Norrman took plenty of his advice to heart.

“He adjusted quickly to his eating habits and the strength and conditioning part … his drive was just different than anyone else,” said Donaldson. “He did everything with limited resources. That kid worked his butt off at a Division II school to get where he is today.”

Donaldson said that about the halfway point of Norrman’s second season at Georgia Southwestern, he could tell his star student was ready to do something bigger in this game.

Norrman played well at The Amateur that summer and the Swedish National Team had come knocking on his door to provide more resources for his development. Norrman came back to the U.S. and dominated – winning five of seven tournaments during the COVID-19 impacted college campaign. Some of those wins came without his best stuff, Donaldson recalls, and when Norrman did have his best, “it wasn’t close.”

Norrman’s girlfriend, a fellow Swede, has also been instrumental in his trajectory to the TOUR. It’s not just nice to be together with someone from Norrman’s home country, though. His girlfriend is Frida Kinhult, an LPGA Tour member and former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world.

Kinhult was teeing it up at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland when Norrman earned his PGA TOUR card, but the pair reunited for the first event of the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Finals. It’s been great to see his hard work pay off, she said, and Norrman said it’s been wonderful to have someone to not only compete against but also understand what it’s like to pursue a career in professional golf.

“Her game is so good, and we can always have good competitions during off-weeks. She’s taught me a lot about putting (and) gave me a few lessons on practice and good pointers. It’s been awesome,” said Norrman. “You can have bad days, and she’ll have bad days, but you can calm each other down. Golf’s such a hard game.”

Norrman made golf look easy through his final years as a collegiate superstar, however, and did enough good things in his first year as a professional to earn a PGA TOUR card in his inaugural attempt.

“I think that last year was huge for him. He got into a situation (at Florida State) where people were going to him to prepare for the next level,” said Donaldson. “Did I see it going this quickly? No. But I definitely saw it as the years went on when he was here (and) I think he’s ready for it.”

A long way from Stockholm to South Georgia, perhaps, but it’s been a short trip to the PGA TOUR for Vincent Norrman.