Two men’s golf players from Europe adjust to life in LA through team and love for the sport
By Steven Covella
Jan. 31, 2012 12:40 a.m.
UCLA ATHLETICS
Although living thousands of miles away from his native Portugal, junior Pedro Figueiredo could not resist the opportunity to play golf for UCLA.
UCLA ATHLETICS
Junior Pontus Widegren hails from Sweden and is one of two international students on the UCLA men’s golf team.
Nearly four out of every five UCLA students reside in California, making a trip home for a break or a long weekend easily accessible.
For students like juniors Pedro Figueiredo and Pontus Widegren, though, visits to their homes halfway across the globe are few and far between.
Aside from the obstacle of living more than 5,500 miles away from the UCLA campus, Figueiredo and Widegren, who hail from Portugal and Sweden respectively, are also members of the men’s golf team.
This means that their schedules are packed with school and both team and individual golf events, limiting their time at home.
“There are times I’m jealous of the ability to drive home for the weekend and get a home-cooked meal and get my clothes washed and those things,” Widegren said. “It’s difficult, but it’s worth it.”
For the two Europeans, their journeys to UCLA began around the age of 14, when successes in international junior tournaments resulted in increased contact and attention from college coaches in the United States. As a result, their eyes were opened to opportunities abroad and they took advantage by coming to UCLA.
Despite the sacrifices of leaving friends and family for extended periods of time, it was clear to both golfers that playing in the United States would be beneficial both academically and athletically.
“Of course we miss each other, but my parents knew my dream and goal was to come to the U.S. to finish college and play golf at the highest level. They know I can’t do both in Portugal because there’s no such system,” Figueiredo said.
Although they both call the continent of Europe home, different upbringings led to different transitions for the two golfers.
Widegren lives just outside of Stockholm, Sweden’s capital and its largest city, making the transition to the urban environment of Los Angeles somewhat smooth. That being said, he did have to adjust to the massive scale of a new metropolitan area.
“I grew up in the city, so living here suits me,” said Widegren, who has lived about 6 miles outside of Stockholm since he was 1 year old.
“But obviously there’s no other place in the world with the same traffic or enormous population other than L.A.,” he added.
Adapting to the size and density of Los Angeles was admittedly hard for Widegren, but the transition Figueiredo faced was a sharper turn than any dogleg hole he had seen on the golf course.
“I live on a farm in the middle of the forest. We have vineyards, horses, chickens and all those kinds of animals,” said Figueiredo, whose family’s farm encompasses nearly 1,000 acres. “To get anywhere I have to drive 15 minutes on a dirt road on the countryside, so it’s totally different from L.A.”
But the two golfers’ teammates and coaches made the transition easier.
“They missed home at times, but they’ve got family here in our team. We’re a close team; we spend a lot of time together; and they felt very comfortable here,” coach Derek Freeman said.
Contributing to the close-knit atmosphere of the team is the importance Freeman puts on embracing the team’s diversity.
“(Freeman) emphasizes that ““ respect each other because we might think different things and have different opinions, but you also learn a lot from different cultures,” Figueiredo said. “I think it makes you a more complete person learning from the others.”
In their distant new environment at UCLA, where academics can be intense and demanding, Widegren especially was able to find solace in the one thing he had in common between the States and Sweden: golf.
“I remember the first couple weeks of the first quarter I felt really lost in the classroom,” said Widegren, who majors in history.
“I was just looking forward to getting back on the golf course because that was always a place I was comfortable and somewhere I knew I could do well.”
Widegren and Figueiredo have grown a lot since arriving in Westwood, as they have become more comfortable in their home away from home. This has led to a focus on success rather than personalities.
“We’re putting a bunch of kids together to really try to achieve the same goals and work in the same direction even though we might be different in the beginning,” Widegren said.
Knowing the two since they were junior golfers in Europe, Freeman has witnessed their progress from the start and is happy with the results.
“It’s been great having them here; they’re two wonderful people, great guys to have on the team,” Freeman said. “I don’t recruit many international players, and I got two of the best I possibly could have.”
