Trust in Herself Lifts Bergsdottir to New Heights
Graduate student playing at all-time level thanks to mental revamp
Braidon Nourse
With individual, season and career records in her grasp, Andrea Bergsdottir hasn’t slowed down. In fact, with a refreshed mindset and a refined short game this spring, she’s just getting started.
Beginning her final campaign in the fall, she has often been the best and most consistent player on the Colorado State women’s golf team.
For one, she’s the only player to have only shot above par just once the entire season. She’s shot the lowest score for the Rams in all but two tournaments.
“Her scoring average is under par right now and usually the top 50 or so in the country are under par, so she’s within a really, really elite group in college golf right now,” coach Laura Cilek said. “With that confidence going into professional golf and what she can accomplish, this should be a really good building block for her.”
After a formidable fall portion of the season, her work was only beginning. With the season’s gap between October and February, she took the time to work on various mechanics, but more importantly, her mental approach. The result has been the best version of herself in nearly every facet, but she most notably feels she is a freer, calmer golfer.
Before, she allowed herself to succumb to pressure at times during tournaments, sometimes even before events started. She let the possibility of other golfers being better than her hinder her confidence and, as a result, her performance.
So, she made a decision: this spring, go into events thinking she can do this just as well as anyone else could muster.
Repeating that message to herself, it turned out not to be true. In reality, at least for her first spring tournament, she couldn’t do it as well as everyone else could produce; she played better. Became the very golfer who would have intimidated her months ago.
The first tournament back from winter break, Bergsdottir took home her first ever college victory at The Collegiate Invitational in Mexico, shooting 212 (-4). On the second day of the event, she recorded an ace — the fourth of her career; her second in college.
“I was pretty confident overall over the whole tournament,” Bergsdottir said. “But when I hit that shot and it went in, I was like, ‘OK, I feel like it’s my day today.’ The win was definitely something I took with me. I feel like if I can win in that field, I could probably win in any field I’m competing in right now because my golf game is pretty strong.”
Most recently, she shot 203 (-13) at the Westbrook Invitational in Arizona, just three shots shy of the program-best of 200, established by Sofia Torres last September. She tied for second place.
As it stands, she’s averaging 70.61 strokes per round this year. If the season ended today, that would crush the all-time CSU record of 72.67, which Torres set last year. Right now, her career stroke average is 74.17, just .01 strokes more than the all-time career record.
Capturing records like that, according to Cilek, is inherently a goal for any golfer. But the focus is rarely on the goal itself.
“Obviously, you want to be the best player in school history. Obviously, you want to play the best you can every tournament,” Cilek said. “But we like to talk more about, ‘What are you going to do every week to get yourself there?’ Andrea’s on track to break pretty much every record in the book, so that tells us we’re doing the right things, and we need to continue to lock in.”
I just keep my head down a little bit and think I’m still doing this because I love it.Andrea Bergsdottir
At her current pace, topping both leaderboards now just seems like a side effect of her notably-improved golf, which gets better and better in nearly every competition.
In many ways, the two spring performances so far have set a new individual standard for the fifth-year senior. With the old barriers broken and new ones on the horizon, there comes a bit of strain with the anticipation of adding more trophies to the shelf.
“For sure, it brings pressure. I want to go into every tournament winning now,” Bergsdottir said. “I would say I have expectations of myself right now, but I try to bring myself back down and think, ‘Just control what I can control.’ I just keep my head down a little bit and think I’m still doing this because I love it.”
Before the 2023-24 campaign, the record stood at 207 for a 54-hole score. Four Rams have beaten that mark this year alone, including freshman Kara Kaneshiro, who has been left with a Bergsdottir-sized imprint during her first season in the college ranks.
Most days, Kaneshiro golfs in the group just ahead of Bergsdottir, giving her a front-row view to the upcoming show. During competition, they won’t talk much to each other with a half or full hole separating them, but typically there isn’t much need — the quiet Bergsdottir is largely a leader by example.
That day in Mexico, Kaneshiro watched and learned up close the level of focus required to finish off a win. Something she’ll take with her as her already-impressive career continues, even once Bergsdottir moves on.
“Once I heard about the hole-in-one, I was like, ‘She’s going to win the tournament,’” Kaneshiro said. “At the end of the day, most of us had finished before her, so we watched her come in on (hole) 18 and it was just amazing. I got chills watching her. I know she worked really hard during winter break, so it was amazing to see it pay off.”
For Cilek, there was a similar feeling, especially given the mental hurdles she’s helped Bergsdottir jump over during her career. As time has passed, Cilek has had to say less and less to Bergsdottir.
At this point, whatever Cilek would need to say, she knows Bergsdottir is probably already reciting in her own head.
In many ways, it has made her job as a coach significantly easier. She gave Bergsdottir all the tools as a young college golfer, who just happened to turn herself into a pretty good carpenter.
As all paths have intersected at Bergsdottir playing the best golf of her career — and clearing all the cerebral boundaries in the process — she can’t help but reflect on the program she has built in her five years as CSU head coach.
“(Bergsdottir has) put in so much work in her four and a half years here and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to turn the program around with,” Cilek said. “She was my very first recruit here, so she’s definitely a special person for me and our program.”
The impact, as Cilek alluded to, is not just singular. Bergsdottir really has been the lifeblood of a program turnaround. Kaneshiro, the team’s lone underclassman, along with juniors like Pemika Arphamongkol and Lacey Uchida (Arphamongkol has also shot under 207 this season) are proof the program is far from out of luck once Bergsdottir says goodbye.
But before Cilek or the team has to worry about the distant future, they’re all focused on the possibilities scattered around the near future, which includes an NCAA team championship tournament berth.
The Rams entered the rankings almost a month ago at No. 43 but have dropped to just outside the top 50 since then as a team. Cilek knows a chance at NCAA Regionals is in the cards but can only be achieved by the players. At this point, she said, coaches can only do so much.
Bergsdottir knows it, too, but she also knows any Ram can shine on any given day. Like Torres’ 200, Arphamongkol’s 205 and Kaneshiro’s 206 all on the same day in September. Putting herself in that company with her own 203 a week ago lifts the excitement for the postseason.
If all of them can compile those performances on the right day, the team can end the season with a bang, much like Bergsdottir did in Mexico with her ace towards the end of the competition. Do that, and there’s no limit to where the Rams can take their season.
“It’s really exciting. We’re all looking to play at nationals this year,” Bergsdottir said. “We all have that as a goal and we’re working towards it. So that would be amazing if we could do that.”