For Adam Svensson, Every Day Is a Work Day While Inching Closer to First Tour Title

Svensson, a 28-year-old Canadian, brings a run of good form into this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he's looking for his first PGA Tour victory.

ORLANDO, Fla. – For Adam Svensson, the Canadian is building his career on the process.

At 28, Svensson is the model of focus. He doesn’t take vacations, in fact, he even says that golf is his vacation. He works harder at home than he does on the road and except for taking a couple of Mondays off, works every day with little time for himself.

It seems to be paying off. Since earning his PGA Tour card in 2021 after finishing inside the top 50 on the Korn Ferry Tour money list, the Vancouver native has seen his name on leaderboards at the Sony Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and last week at The Honda Classic.

He hasn’t won yet – 7th at Sony, 49th at Pebble Beach and 9th at Honda – but the learning experience has been all part of the process. What he learned at Sony helped at both AT&T and Honda.

Canada's Adam Svensson finished 9th at last week's Honda Classic with his caddie, Tim Tucker, who formerly worked for Bryson DeChambeau

“I was playing aggressive golf still, instead of middle of green and more of a boring golf style,” Svensson said of why he fell from 6th to finish 9th last week. “The experience was huge for me. Even if I didn’t get it done last week, I finished 9th and I was happy because I learned so much and felt more comfortable in the situation then I had done in the past.”

That experience will be beneficial this week at Bay Hill, where Svensson is a rookie, but his caddie, Tim Tucker, is an old veteran. Tucker has a win, 4th and 6th around the Arnold Palmer designed course, all coming on Bryson DeChambeau’s bag.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s crazy,” Svensson said, describing the line that Tucker showed him that DeChambeau took on the par 5, 6th hole when he drove over the pond and almost onto the green.” I’m poking it out there 290 yards and hitting 3-wood or hybrid on that green.”

Svensson played hockey and soccer as a kid, but golf was always his first love. When he experienced solid amateur success, he decided to go to UNLV to play golf, but when his Canadian school credits didn’t meet the NCAA regulations, he went to NCAA Division II Barry University in Miami. At Barry, he won nine tournaments, earned two First-Team All-American honors and was part of Barry’s Division II national championship teams in 2013 and 2014.

Svensson left Barry after two years and joined the Canadian Tour in 2015, moving up to the Korn Ferry Tour the following year. Since 2016, Svensson won three times on the KFT, two of which were at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club and Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship.

At Honda last week, Svensson had his best chance to earn his biggest check, as he was six shots off Daniel Berger’s 54-hole lead and one shot behind eventual winner Sepp Straka. But a final-round 3-over 73 dropped the rookie down the board.

“Experience was huge, it’s all about learning,” Svensson said as he stood on the practice putting green at Bay Hill Club. “Just learning my swing under pressure, my tendencies. If I hit this shot under pressure, I’m hitting it full, for me it goes a little bit left, so I know lets club up one, let’s hit it smoother. Just little things that can take you to the next level.”

On the 15th hole at PGA National, a par-3 that is part of the venerable “Bear Trap,” a stretch of three holes (15-17) that is dramatic and can make or break a round, Svensson was bitten on Sunday at Honda.

In between a 5- or 6-iron, Svensson decided to keep the ball down on a lower trajectory, versus taking more club to hit it high in the air.

Svensson learned that under pressure a low shot it tends to go a little more right, which it did on Sunday, finding the water and leading to a double bogey. In hindsight, Svensson and his caddie discussed hitting another club, which could either find the green or the left bunker and walk away with a bogey at worst.

“It’s all mental,” Svensson said. “If you become mentally better down the stretch, you save two or three shots.”

Svensson has earned $570,993 this season and $447,557 in his last five tournaments. He now believes that his game, both his swing and his putting – which many believe is his weak link – are good enough to win, which is his goal for this year.

“I’m out here to do a job, I’m not out here to make friends,” Svensson said. “I want to win; I want to play well and so I do anything I can to play better and stay really focused.”