Born in Sweden, now a resident of Norway and a Epson Tour player this year, the 28-year-old Westrup watched friend and fellow Swede Ana Nordqvist win the ShopRite LPGA Classic the last weekend in May. The following week, heroine Suzann Pettersen from Norway surged to a victory at the Manulife LPGA Classic in Canada. Add victories on that first Sunday in June by her male contemporaries from Sweden, David Lingmerth at the Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour and Alexander Noren at the Nordea Masters in Sweden on the European Tour.
That’s enough of a winning vibe to pump up Westrup or get someone of lesser mettle to wonder, ‘Why not me?’
“It’s nice to see people you grew up with succeeding; that’s awesome,” Westrup said. “When I see those girls winning out there, it can definitely give you a little bit more momentum. Hey, I can do it, too.”
Westrup says she was “born on the golf course.” Her father, Carl, is a longtime coach of the Swedish and Norwegian national teams. At age 9, she played golf with Swedish men’s stars Henrik Stenson and Peter Hanson and first met Pettersen. At age 11, her father became Norway’s national coach and the Westrups moved to Oslo.
“I traveled with my father and the teams,” Westrup said. “I was a little girl but I felt like a team member. My father has always been more of a mentor to me. We always talk about everything since he knows what it takes to become a good golfer – and not just on the course.”
When it came time to fly the coop, Westrup chose to play collegiately in the United States. She had visited the U.S. often as a junior golfer to play in the American Junior Golf Association events and realized the college golf opportunities. Westrup followed the lead of fellow Swede Jonas Blixt and visited Florida State. A visit to Tallahassee, Fla., to check out the school came on the Saturday of the FSU-Miami football game.
“ ‘What is this?’ I thought,” Westrup said. “They called it football and didn’t even kick it, or rarely. I thought it was kind of silly at first. But seeing the school and fans come together 84,000 strong, it was so cool. I just fell in love with it and went to just about every game last year. But I still do have to call it American football.”
Westrup developed into the Seminoles’ greatest golfer ever, winning five times and earning multiple All-America honors. With a passion for Florida’s capital city, she still resides there while pursuing a professional career.
The pro game has been Westrup’s first big challenge to overcome. Since turning pro in 2010, she has played in Europe and on the LPGA. This year is her first fulltime on the Epson Tour after bouncing back and forth to the LPGA in the previous couple years.
“I’ve changed my focus on finishing in the top 10 on the Epson Tour,” said Westrup, who had one top-10 by early June, a T8 at the Guardian Retirement Championship in late April. “The Epson Tour has improved a lot over the last couple of years with more events. That makes it more inspiring to play out here.”
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