Carl Pettersson is tied for the lead currently at -5 with Soren Hansen.
Denmark's Soren Hansen,left, and Sweden's Carl Pettersson walk off the 18th green after finishing the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield golf course in Scotland Thursday, July 18, 2002.
Sweden's Carl Pettersson plays from the 3rd tee during the second round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield golf course in Scotland Friday July 19, 2002. Pettersson is a Grimsley High School and N.C. State alum.
Grimsley Grad leads British Open
GREENSBORO -- The family home actually was adjacent to Starmount Country Club's 18th fairway, so you can't say that Carl Pettersson really lived on a golf course. But it sure seemed that way.
As of Thursday night, the Grimsley High School graduate and former N.C. State golfer resided in an even more exciting place: the top spot at the British Open.
Pettersson, a 24-year-old native of Sweden who spent two years in Greensboro, is even with Americans Duffy Waldorf and David Toms after shooting an opening-round, 4-under-par 68 on the esteemed Muirfield course in Scotland. He begins his second round at 5:34 EDT this morning.
Exciting? Sure. Surprising? Nah.
"Instead of going out with everybody in high school, he was out here practicing," said Eric Gaskell, then an assistant and now the head pro at Starmount. "Of course, it's easy when you live on the 18th hole."
For a day, anyway, Pettersson managed to cut into the worldwide news hole carved out for Tiger Woods, who is trying to become the first player to win all of golf's four major professional championships in the same year.
"Tomorrow, I will have to do my best and see what happens if we get wind and rain," said Pettersson, who has six top-10 finishes on the European Tour this year.
The fortunate circumstance of Pettersson's adolescence came about because his dad was transferred here as an executive for Volvo. The family picked out the Starmount place, and Carl's already promising golf career took shape.
He began hanging out with the Kemp brothers, Korky and Kevin, Grimsley grads who also were aspiring professionals. The experience and the constant work began paying off.
At 17, he won Starmount's junior and men's titles, and he remains the only person to pull off the double in the same year in the club's 72-year history. A few months later, he tied a 24-year-old state high school record with a 36-hole score of 137 in winning that championship.
For Tom Kleinlein, then the Whirlies' golf coach and now an administrator with the Wake Forest University football program, "coaching" Pettersson wasn't a terribly involved task.
"I made sure he had enough tees and enough golf balls and that he was on time for his matches," Kleinlein said.
Behind it all, friends say, was a relentless work ethic and a maturity produced by 10 years in Sweden and six in England before the family's move to Greensboro in 1994.
"He was very focused, but he didn't let the bad things that can happen to you in golf distract him," Kleinlein said.
And he didn't let them deter his daring streak. He'll take chances anywhere on a course.
"Under pressure, it seems like he only putts better," said Danny Apagion, director of golf at The Heritage Club, a new course in Wake County for which Pettersson serves as a touring pro and informal ambassador. "Doesn't matter if it's for $2 out here or in the British Open. And he's aggressive on the greens. Bangs 'em in the back of the hole like I've never seen."
Pettersson broke through and earned his first tournament victory as a professional, winning the rain-shortened, 36-hole Algarve Open in Portugal in April. He stands 16th on the European Tour's money list this year with $616,997.41, and he's building a home at The Heritage Club.
And he's making the biggest British Open splash of any player with Triad ties since Burlington native Johnny Bulla finished second to Sam Snead in 1946.
"If there's anybody who deserves it, it's Carl," Gaskell said. "He's a fighter and he's going to make it. Just like all those guys who are meant to be out there."
