Cal Golf's Sofia Lundell: From Sweden to Berkeley to Pandemic in Paradise
* The first in a series of periodic stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Cal athletes in different sports
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Like all of Cal's spring-sport athletes, golfer Sofia Lundell had her season obliterated by the pandemic.
But within days of the mid-March shutdown, everything else about the next three months was different for the native of Vellinge, Sweden.
While others returned home or huddled in their campus apartments, Lundell accepted an invitation from a friend to come to the Big Island of Hawaii. She lived in a separate guest house on the property at a resort community and had full access to a golf course.
Most important, she felt safe.
“If I think back on it now, I would have in my room in lockdown. It would have been very, very, very different, compared to my experience of COVID," Lundell said. "What could have been super scary turned out to be a three-month fantasy story.”
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*** Lundell recalls her experience living in Hawaii through the spring:
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Lundell first met Carol Kaufman the year before when Cal traveled to Hawaii for a golf tournament. They kept in touch and met a couple more times over the subsequent months because Kaufman also has a home in San Francisco.
The friendship isn't typical. Lundell is 21, Kaufman is 70,
When the invitation first came, Lundell recalled thinking it was too good to be true and said no thanks. "I guess she was a little concerned and worried I was here by myself and not with my family.”
Lundell acknowledges she was stressed and scared by the virus.
Sofia Lundell with friend Carol Kaufman.
Kaufman was persistent and Lundell discussed the arrangement with her parents, who gave it the green light.
Everything was as advertised in Hawaii. She was on the golf course almost daily, and recalled thinking, “I am probably the only collegiate golfer who is able to golf right now.”
Finishing her classwork remotely from paradise was tougher than Lundell anticipated. “It was hard to do school over there because there’s so many temptations," she said.
Lundell remained in Hawaii for more than three months, and now regards Kaufman as equal parts close friend and American grandmother. "I'm so grateful," she said.
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*** Lundell talks in the video below about Sweden's atypical approach to COVID-19:
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After returning to the Bay Area from Hawaii in June, Lundell trekked to Sweden to visit her family for five weeks.
Sweden is among the few countries in the world that has remained mostly open during the pandemic, opting against mask wearing in favor of trying to create herd immunity. Citizens are asked to use social distancing, but restaurants, bars and, yes, golf courses, remained open.
“I was very shocked when I got there . . . You wouldn’t be able to tell there’s a pandemic going on there,” Lundell said.
Sweden’s approach has created some controversy. It appeared to work well early, but more recent results have not been as good. Herd immunity didn’t take and Sweden’s cases and deaths per capita are far higher than their Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Note: The U.S. has case numbers that are twice as high as in Sweden, but deaths per capita are about the same.
A group of 25 Swedish doctors and scientists wrote an editorial in USA Today late last month under the headline: Sweden hoped herd immunity would curb COVID-19. Don't do what we did. It's not working.
One paragraph in the story reads: “In Sweden, the strategy has led to death, grief and suffering. On top of that, there are no indications that the Swedish economy has fared better than in many other countries. At the moment, we have set an example for the rest of the world on how not to deal with a deadly infectious disease.”
Lundell says she was initially uncomfortable when she returned home to Sweden because she was accustomed to such a different set of rules.
“With my family, I was pretty scared at first to go out without a mask, maybe hug them too much. I was very careful because that’s what I was used to,” she said. “But then I noticed (over) time I adjusted to what was going on over there. And now, when I came back, I need to readjust again.”
It’s been interesting, she said, to observe the different approaches.
“I wish I could give you the answer on what’s right or wrong,” she said. “I don’t really know.”
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
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