The Swedish Golf Hall of Fame, established by the Swedish Golf Association (SGF), is Golf Sweden’s highest award, and will be awarded to those who have meant the most to the development of Swedish golf. In this first year of the awards, held on June 6th 2022, seven people were elected: Annika Sörenstam, Viktor H Setterberg (posthumously), Erik Runfelt (posthumously), Liselotte Neumann , Liv Wollin, Henrik Stenson and Sven Tumba (posthumously).
Several of the prize winners participated in the selection ceremony on Sweden’s national day – including Henrik Stenson, Sweden’s first major winner on the men’s side, and Liv Wollin, the first Swede to compete on the international competition tracks.
They received their awards from the Swedish Golf Association’s chairman Maria Möller, in front of about 80 exclusively invited guests and a large general audience, at the inauguration of the Swedish Golf Hall of Fame and the Swedish Golf Museum’s new exhibition at Landskrona Golf Club.
Annika Sörenstam receives her award on Monday 13 June, in connection with her international girls junior competition ANNIKA Invitational Europe at Vasatorps GK. Liselotte Neumann will come to Landskrona GK on Tuesday 28th June to receive her Hall of Fame statuette.
Exhibition
The Hall of Fame wall has a central place in the new exhibition at the Swedish Golf Museum. Each selected person receives a personal statuette with motivation, as well as a video that summarizes the person’s deed and career in golf.
The museum opened in Landskrona in 2000, but has been closed for rebuilding since 2021. In connection with the inauguration, it is open again to the public, who are now welcome to visit one of Sports Sweden’s most modern museums.
The new exhibition is designed by JAC studios in Copenhagen, which is also behind exhibitions at the Vasa Museum, the Science Museum in London and the Copenhagen Museum, among others.
The museum focuses entirely on Swedish golf history and the ambition is to explain how it went when golf was born, grew and became one of Sweden’s most important folk sports. Highlighting the individuals who have meant the most to this development through a Hall of Fame becomes a natural and exciting part of the exhibition’s story. Read more at svenskagolfmuseet.se .
This year’s Hall of Fame recipients about their selections:
Henrik Stenson : “It is very honoring to be elected to the Swedish Golf’s Hall of Fame. I am incredibly proud of my career and can honestly say that the trip has so far surpassed all the dreams I had as a little junior!”
Liv Wollin : “I am incredibly honored and very happy. It feels big and amazing. It’s a bit funny that I actually played with at least four of the others who are selected, but I had never expected myself this honor.”
Annika Sörenstam : “It’s a wonderful thing – a great honor. After all, it was here in Sweden that it all started from when I was a young junior girl who stood and hit buckets at Bro-Bålsta to be allowed to represent Sweden in national team assignments. It warms.”
Viktor H Setterberg : “Viktor Hugo Setterberg put in an enormous pioneering work for Swedish golf. This work gave him the epithet “the father of Swedish golf”. That it now results in a place in Sweden’s Golf Hall of Fame feels to us, his late club mates, as very honoring, touching and well deserved.”
Erik Runfelt : “We are naturally proud, honored and happy that Erik Runfelt is one of those elected to the Golf Hall of Fame. To be able to experience this and represent our fantastic grandfather in this way feels very honoring and also a sign that our Swedish golf history does not fall into oblivion.”
Lotta Neumann : “What an honor and what fun to be one of the first seven to be elected to the Swedish Golf Hall of Fame! It feels a little unreal but I am incredibly happy and proud. Funny that we now have both a Swedish Hall of Fame and a nice golf museum. It is important that we remember Sweden’s golf history and this is also a way to motivate today’s players and coaches and many others who will one day join the Hall of Fame.”
Sven Tumba : “I and the whole family are so honored and proud that our beloved Sven has been elected to the Hall of Fame in Sweden. Thank you for honoring his memory, it warms!”
Pictured at top of page: Five of this year’s Hall of Fame recipients with their statuettes. Fr. v. Henrik Stenson, Liv Wollin, Tommie Tumba (son of Sven Tumba), Lotta Norlander and Sanna Skeppstedt Hedskog (grandson of Erik Runfelt) and Claes Olsson (chairman of the Gothenburg Golf Club’s history committee, for Viktor H Setterberg). Photo: Göran Söderqvist.