MACON, Ga. — The fall season for the Mercer men's golf team gets going this weekend, and the Bears will do it with a world champion in their corner.
Tobias Jonsson might be one of Central Georgia's best kept golf secrets -- until this week.
“To play for the Swedish national team was the dream,” Jonsson said.
There might not be anybody in Macon that had a better summer than Mercer’s sophomore star.
“I came out there trying to do my best and see how it would go, and yeah it seems like it worked out pretty good,” Jonsson said.
The Bears sweet swinging Swede capped it off by winning the individual championship at the IGF World Amateur last week in Paris.
Not a bad way to head back to class.
“Now I know I can beat the best guys,” Jonsson said. “It's good guys out there, and now I can trust myself and hopefully play better.”
When we caught up with Tobias in February even then, the goal was clear – to be inside the top 100 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR).
Fast-forward seven months, and Jonsson's World Amateur Golf Ranking is at 133 for now, but will shoot up quite a bit this week, giving him -- and the Bears -- all the confidence they need heading into this fall.
“Playing good is contagious, so you want that to rub off as much as possible and right now, seeing him play so well on the world stage,” head coach Jason Payne said. “We definitely want as much of that to rub off as possible.”
“In college you're playing five guys and you count the top four, there, you have three guys and count the top two, so it's kind of similar,” Jonsson said. “I hope I can help Mercer win some tournaments this semester.”
And as for adjusting to life in the peach state goes?
“First thing is you got to get him accustomed to country music and barbeque, coming down here to Macon so those were the first things,” Payne said. “I'm not really sure of those words in Sweden.”
Safe to say the success on the course is helping all that along for the Swedish sophomore.
“We're playing an individual sport as a team here in college so any time you can have a teammate go on and accomplish great things, it lets you see what you can accomplish,” Payne said.
As Tobias expects that WAGR ranking to shoot up this week, it could very well help him be invited to another high level amateur or even a pro event.
Mercer heads to Florida this weekend to begin the 2022 fall season.
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