Family first
I grew up in the south of Sweden with my mother, Mona, my father, Ingemar and my ten-year younger sister, Ulrika.
I met Emma Löfgren, who is now my wife, through mutual golfing friends. Emma comes from a sporting family in the north of Sweden. She was a very talented alpine skier but golf became her sport of choice. When I met Emma she was playing golf for the University of South Carolina, where she majored in Public Relations and Media. I spent a lot of time with her over there. Puggy Blackmon, who was head of the men’s golf program at South Carolina, let me practice and hang out with the team. After graduation Emma worked as a teaching pro at Barsebäck Golf and Country Club for a few years. Since we both have a golfing background, we have a mutual understanding of the game and what it takes to succeed.
In December 2006 we got married in Dubai, which is also where we resided until the beginning of 2012. We had our first child, “Princess” Lisa, in July 2007. And Karl, or Kalle as we call him, in March 2010 and Alice made our family even bigger in October 2014.
We moved from Dubai to the United States in 2012. Emma and the kids join me on tour as much as our schedules allow them.
Whenever we can, we visit Sweden for a number of weeks in summer.
We have a large extended family, with siblings, parents and cousins that often come and see us wherever we are in the world. The house is always full of family, friends and coaches. It’s a family affair…
Henrik and Hank hanging out in southern Sweden
Photo credit : Hugo Boss
My early story
No one in my family played golf. I played soccer and badminton. My first contact with golf was through a friend down the street, Pontus Eriksson, who asked if I wanted to follow him to the driving range. I was hooked immediately. I went home to Mom and Dad and asked for some clubs – and I got them! My parents thought that my interest in the sport would wear off after a few weeks but I came back and asked for more equipment.
My Dad, Ingemar, who had played many sports, came with me when I had my second lesson on the driving range at Gullbringa Golf Club. The pro Richard Bayliss said he was impressed that I was hitting straight shots, which caused my Dad to ask, “Isn’t that the whole point of the game?”.
I played my first rounds when I was 12 and after that first summer I was down to an 18 handicap from the ladies tees. Having achieved this I moved to the men’s tees and reduced my handicap to 9 by the end of the following summer. Gullbringa Golf Club was quite far from home so Mom and Dad drove me there in the morning and picked me up in the evening. These were long days but all my friends were also on the course all day. We played short game competitions, and searched for balls in ponds and ditches. My Mom soon got so tired of washing and drying dirty, wet clothes and shoes that she offered to buy balls instead. But the real attraction was the thrill of the search. Maybe it was my Mother I was thinking of when I took off my clothes at Doral, to avoid soiling my shoes and clothes. During the summer my Dad took up playing because he was tired of sitting in the parking lot listening to me saying “Just one more bucket of balls.” My Dad soon discovered that hitting the ball straight wasn’t as easy as it seemed!
Idol
As a kid I looked up to Mats Lanner, a Swedish golfer who now works for the European Tour. My reason was that he had such a cool Spalding bag and as a child you think the bigger the bag the better – even if it was too big for us to carry or even push around.
Growing up, there weren’t many golf events shown on Swedish Television, but I did get to see a few of the major tournaments, which inspired me enormously.
I have very strong memories from The Open at Royal Birkdale in 1991 when Ian Baker-Finch won. I also watched The Ryder Cup in 1989, 1991 and 1993.
As a result The Open and The Ryder Cup have always been the tournaments I have wanted to compete in – and of course win!
Seve and Faldo have been my favorites since I was very young. So having the opportunity to play with both of them was fantastic.
