Name: Gudrún Björgvinsdóttir

Sport: Women’s Golf

Year & Major: Senior, Kinesiology- Exercise Science

Hometown: Hafnarfjördur, Iceland

JW: What is the most challenging aspect of golf for you?

GB: Probably just the mental side, like you need to be in the right””I don’t know what to call it””but the right momentum and right mind. Just get all that you have to do, done. So I think that’s the hardest thing.

JW: What’s your favorite club to use?

GB: It has always been my putter, but for the last years I’ve been struggling a little bit, but it’s now coming back, so I’m going to stick with the putter.

JW: Do you have any prematch rituals or superstitions?

GB: I’m not really superstitious, like not at all. I don’t do anything particular, but I always do my routine before I play. So that’s just kind of my warmup routine, but I don’t do anything weird. I always do the same warmup in the same order. I start with going to the range and warming my body up, and then I hit from my wedge and up until my driver. Probably around five balls is what I do, but then if I hit a bad one, I hit maybe one more. If I feel comfortable, I maybe just hit four. After that, I normally like go to the bathroom, get water, get everything ready and then I putt. I always use three balls, and I start with long putts. I always””that’s kind of one””I always need to finish, I finish with the short putts and I use three balls, and I always need to finish making them all in a row.

JW: What do you miss most about Iceland?

GB: I mean, I mainly miss my family and my friends. I do really miss the food. I do not miss the weather, though it’s really nice in the summer. And being here now, I’m kind of excited to go home for winter for a little bit of snow, but I wouldn’t want to stay there for the whole winter.

JW: What’s your favorite American meal or restaurant?

GB: I honestly never go out here. I cook my own meals, so I just like to cook something simple.

JW: Are there any certain meals in Iceland that you try to cook here?

GB: Not really. I mean the food in Iceland is really similar to American food, like type wise. It’s just different with like ingredients, and the taste is different. Like we don’t use as much grease and oil and fat. That’s kind of the main difference, but we eat pizza. We eat hamburgers. It’s just the taste is different. I don’t know what my favorite restaurant is. Probably just my apartment, and what I cook.

JW: There are a lot of misconceptions about Iceland, so how can you describe it to people who don’t really know about the country?

GB: The funniest thing is like when people know I’m from Iceland, the sentence they say is: “Oh, Iceland is green and Greenland is ice.” I mean, I’ve kind of figured out that this is something that you guys [Americans] learn in history in high school or something. Which I mean this is true, but it’s just funny.

I mean, Iceland is really pretty, and we have a lot of landscape and mountains and glaciers and waterfalls. The weather there kind of sucks. We have a long winter and not warm summers, but it’s a really pretty and peaceful country. We are a small country. We are only 320,000 [people] in the whole country, so you know a lot of people and a lot of connections. You can always connect to someone like “Oh, you’re her friend.” You always know people, I mean it’s good and bad.

JW: Does being here make you appreciate the weather in Iceland?

GB: Actually, yeah. Kind of both. I really miss it, but it’s like I don’t want to be there for a whole winter.

JW: What’s the best golfing moment you’ve had at Fresno State, so far?

GB: I would say winning the Mountain West [individual championship] my freshman year. I shot 71, 71, 76. I mean, it was tough conditions the last round. It was really windy. I just remember being on the fairway because I didn’t know the score, but I felt that I was close and my assistant coach came up to me and he was like, ‘just hit it to the green’ and I was like, ‘OK, I need to get a par here.’ I made a par, so it was a nice moment.

JW: What are your plans after graduation?

GB: I’m going to turn pro. I’m going to go home for the summer and play as an amateur and kind of just figure out what I really want to do and put the schedule down. I’m going to go qualify for Q [qualifying] school in the fall. My plan now is to be in Newark, but I’ve kind of been looking into here or back there, so it just depends on when it happens.

JW: What does it mean to you to be a Bulldog?

GB: It’s an honor. I mean you’re representing a whole school and a whole valley. People are expecting and depending on you. I think it’s an honor. It’s just a fun time.