The latest of these arrived in the PGAs of Europe office recently from the frozen north. When Icelandic PGA pro Arnar Mar Olafsson visited the Belfry at the start of 2007 for some support in rejuvenating the education programme back home, across the Atlantic he had no idea of how quickly things would develop.
The enthusiastic Arnar had returned to his homeland in December 2006, from working in Sweden, to become President of the PGA of Iceland and with an overwhelming priority to speed up the existing process of creating qualified pros there.
As he explained at the time, golf is booming in the ‘land of the midnight sun', global warming is turning former glaciers green, the number of players grows by up to 12% a year, the demand for lessons outstrips the number of PGA pros available to provide them.
Against that background, a heart-warming message has been received from him: "On June 17 we are celebrating a new chapter in our PGA of Iceland history. No one thought it would be possible, except Leif Ohlsson (Chairman of the PGAs of Europe Education Committee) and some very optimistic Icelanders. But our hard work has paid off and we will have 11 new PGA teachers in PGA of Iceland. June 17 is our Independence Day. The whole country is celebrating... and we will take two hours on that day to hand out the Diploma Certificates to our eleven new teachers."
