Sunday was a golden day for Greensboro, thanks to Caroline Lind, Carl Pettersson and the Wyndham Championship.
Greensboro native Lind and teammates powered the U.S. women's eight to Olympic victory in an impressive performance. She becomes the city's second gold medalist since Joey Cheek earned speed-skating honors at the 2006 Winter Games.
Rowing and skating (on ice) aren't sports normally associated with Greensboro. Cheek moved to Canada to train, while Lind joined the national team in Princeton, N.J.
That's another point in common: Cheek attends Princeton University; Lind graduated in 2006.
Greensboro is more closely linked to golf, and that long tradition was reinforced with this year's Wyndham. The return to Sedgefield Country Club, where Sam Snead once ruled the tournament, attracted sell-out galleries - also helped by nearly perfect weather - and generated competitive play.
All the better that the winner, Pettersson, holds local ties. A native of Sweden, Pettersson lived in Greensboro as a teenager and graduated from Grimsley High School. Currently a Raleigh-area resident, he serves on the board of the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, which operates the tournament and decided to shift it back to Sedgefield after an absence of 32 years. It turned out to be a good call for the event, for the Triad and for Pettersson.
Other players seemed to enjoy the course, too, and word's likely to get around the tour that this is a tournament that shouldn't be missed. This year's leaderboard included names unfamiliar to the general public, and some of those players took full advantage of the chance to collect big paychecks. Maybe bigger stars will realize they missed a golden opportunity and put the Wyndham on their calendars next year.
Lind's monetary reward will be relatively modest. Her team wasn't racing for riches but for pride and glory like the amateur Olympians of old. These athletes trained for years, and expended tremendous energy, to become the best in their sport. Their moment of acclaim might be brief, but the title of Olympic gold medalist lasts forever.
For most cities, gold medals are scarce. From these games, Charlotte claims resident Cullen Jones, a relay teammate of record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps. Winston-Salem's Chris Paul, a member of the men's basketball team, looks like a good bet to return with gold of his own.
Caroline Lind has provided Greensboro with its share of Olympic bragging rights this year, while Carl Pettersson and the Wyndham have given Greensboro a brighter name in golf.
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