Both personally and professionally, 2021 has been a fantastic year for nine-time LPGA winner Anna Nordqvist.
The 34-year-old native of Eskilstuna, Sweden, got married to caddie Kevin McAlpine, won the AIG Women’s British Open for her first major in four years and then was a member of the winning European Solheim Cup team, where she compiled a 2-1-1 record and was the first player out in Sunday singles against Team USA’s Lexi Thompson. Now a resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, Nordqvist recently talked with Golfweek about her major win at Carnoustie in August and how she teamed up with a new putter and accessories company, Swag.
David Dusek: So, 2021 has been quite a year for you. It’s pretty much all come together. Was more aquavit consumed during your wedding or after winning the Solheim Cup?
Anna Nordqvist: Uhm, well, I’m actually not a big drinker, so I must say it was probably more champagne in the trophy. And I don’t actually like champagne, so it was consumed mostly by my team.
DD: Have you learned how much champagne can be held in the trophy?
AN: No, I should probably ask my caddie. I think it’s quite a bit, so I’m gonna have to ask the boys to see how much it actually fills up.
DD: Congratulations on winning your third major. I would imagine it was a pretty special thing. Carnoustie has seen its share of carnage on the men’s side. Over 15 minutes playing the final hole, it had to be one of the biggest swings of emotions you’ve probably ever had as an athlete. Outwardly you stayed calm, but inwardly you must have been going nuts.
AN: Yeah, I mean, I’ve been pro for I don’t know how many years now and I live for the moments of pressure. I love coming down the stretch and even having a chance. I play better knowing that I have a chance than when I’m totally out of it and battling for 65th place.
Carnoustie is such a hard golf course and on the last four holes, you can’t really lose focus. Those holes, as we all know, will just eat you straight up. After hitting my lag putt on 18, and knowing I had like a 1-inch putt for the win, that’s when I finally kind of got a little bit over my emotions, but you’re so focused on what you’re doing. You’re staying in the moment.
Anna Nordqvist of Sweden poses with the trophy after winning the 2021 AIG Women’s British Open at Carnoustie. Photo by Ian Rutherford/PA Wire
DD: Every player wants to win a major championship, but winners at certain venues get a little nod. Almost like a bonus point for winning a U.S. Open at someplace like Pebble Beach, Oakmont or Winged Foot. I asked Paula Creamer about this a while ago because she won at Oakmont and she kind of acknowledged it. Carnoustie is known as being one of the hardest of the British Open venues. Do you sense your peers give you a little bit of a bonus because you won at Carnoustie?
AN: Yeah, I think I’ve learned over the years to not really listen too much to what everyone else thinks of me and thinks of my accomplishments and thinks of my game up. I appreciate all the support that I get, but for me personally, that’s all I could have asked for.
If I had to pick between St. Andrews and Carnoustie, I will play Carnoustie every day because I think Carnoustie is such a tougher golf course. And for me, it couldn’t have happened at any better place. So that is something I’m going to be extremely proud of for the rest of my life—knowing that I won the British Open at Carnoustie. If my peers think it’s better that I won there than any other … I’ve just learned that I can’t live my life depending on what everyone else thinks of me and my comments and stuff like that. But for me personally, there’s no golf tournament at a better venue that I could win, and that is something I’ll be forever proud of.
DD: On the equipment side, you play a Swag putter. It’s a relatively small and new brand. It started in 2017. How did you come to learn about the brand?
AN: So, I met the owner, Nick Venson, and the tour rep out here in Arizona. He had a few putters around. Over the years, I’ve putted with a lot of different brands. I used to switch every two or three months because I never really liked the feel of a putter. So, when I came out, he had a few putters laying around that I like, kind of the normal like Anser style.
DD A heel-toe weighted blade?
AN: Yeah, Swag calls it the Handsome Too, the model that I’m using. I got into a few mallets over the years, but I always tend to come back and I’ve seen seemed to have won the most victories with that style (heel-toe weighted blade). I used to always kind of change every two or three months and it used to drive my old caddies crazy. They were like, “Why are you changing putters again,” but it used to always come down to me not liking the feel or the way it comes off. I’m very much a feel player and I like to feel the ball come off the face. A lot of them, I refer to as it’s almost being like a marshmallow-like, it comes off so soft with all these inserts that companies have started to add over the years. Or it just comes out too firm or you can’t feel the ball. It’s like a delayed hit.
So, I think when I when I asked (Nick) if I could try a putter, I think it was 34 inches and I’m at the 36 now. So, it was more just getting a feel for it. It was almost like love at first sight because I could finally feel the ball come off the putter. I mean, Nick has so much experience. He used to work for Scotty Cameron, used to work for Bettinardi, so he knows what he’s doing.
What’s cool about Swag is they can basically build you anything you want. Any style, any color, any shaft. So they ended up making me a black one, so that’s what I have in my putter now. So then they made me (another) black one in January and I put it in play at the Australian Open and I think I had my first top 10 in a long time, at the beginning of last year. (Since then) I have not changed putters. We have messed around a little bit with the lofts and lies, but I have not changed putter since 2019. That’s huge for me because that’s over a year and a half.
Obviously now, being on board with the team, it’s been such an amazing opportunity for me, but I don’t know if you’ve seen my golf bags this year….
DD: Oh, you can’t miss them.
AN: It was actually good! I played in a charity event yesterday, and you know how they take your bag at backdrop and yours goes among the 50 bags. So, I was just sneaking out and like, “OK, there’s my bag.” I could see it.
Anna Nordqvist’s neon-yellow Swag golf bag at the 2021 Women’s British Open. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
DD: That the putter headcover that you’ve you’ve got that that Queen had covered did they. Did you request that or did they bring that to you?
AN: So, they actually made it for me as a surprise. Swag does all these custom headcovers, like shoe drops, very once in a while and these headcovers sell out in minutes, sometimes seconds. So, after my win at the British, they literally, I think the Monday, showed me a picture of his head cover they were making. They call it a Swedish Queen and if you look closely at it actually has my trophy in it.
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