The Striking Viking Ewa Mataya Laurance

Since her early teens, Ewa Mataya Laurance has been relentlessly pursuing the act of hitting a ball with a stick. First in billiards, and now in golf, that pursuit has brought the woman known around the world as “The Striking Viking” from a small town in Sweden to Myrtle Beach, and a life that for her, becomes more perfect with every passing day. For more than two decades, much has been written about the Hall of Fame billiards career of Ewa Mataya Laurance, a career that started in the city of Gavle, about 2 hours north of Stockholm, on a day when then 14 year-old Ewa Svensson followed her older brother Mats into a poolroom. Always a good athlete, she had excelled in soccer, basketball and skiing, but after a second trip to the poolroom, a different game grabbed her heart. “All other sports paled by comparison,” she once told the Swedish Scanorama Magazine, adding that she was “fascinated by the mystique surrounding the game, and the silent intensity with which players tried to solve the layout of the rack.” With a new focus, she dreamt big dreams, of becoming the best in the world at billiards. Though her family was supportive, many others laughed at the idea of a small-town female player, in a man’s game, who thought she could compete on the world stage. Those who did could not have known the fire that lived inside the schoolgirl who did her homework between racks for hours on end.

The combination of world-class talent and relentless work started to pay off quickly, and Ewa’s goal began looking like a real possibility when she won the Swedish National 9-Ball title at 16 and the European 9-Ball Championship the following year. That victory brought with it a chance to compete at the prestigious World 9-Ball Championship in New York, and in accepting that invitation, at 17 years of age, Ewa’s world would change forever.

A move to Lansing, Michigan, a short-lived first marriage to pool pro Jim Mataya, a daughter Nikki, all within a few years of moving to the States. The difficult work of pursuing her passion in an intensely competitive sport, rigorous hours of practice and long spells of life on the road, all while trying to single-handedly raise a daughter, in a sport that at the time offered almost no monetary reward, especially to women, for such a drive to excellence. All of it forging a determination and inner drive that characterize all great champions.

“Back when I started,” she says, “no one was really making any money. Only a couple of the guys, like Minnesota Fats and Steve Mizerak, made any kind of a living at pool, unless you gambled or hustled, which I wasn’t into. Then slowly but surely I found a way to turn my passion for the game into a way to make a living.”

That “way” began with an increasingly stunning tournament record, an undeniable certification of her talent and of her steady rise to the top of her sport. Two World Open 9-Ball titles and numerous tournament championships led Laurance, in 1988, to a sponsorship agreement with Brunswick Billiards, then as now the preeminent name in the sport, and to a level of stability for herself and for Nikki. For the first time she had a more stress-free opportunity to chase the world’s top spot.

Laurance did not let the chance pass her by, and with animal-like intensity, began a run that included two US Open 9-Ball titles, the US National 9-Ball title, two Player-of-the-Year seasons, a world high-run record set at the US Open Straight Pool Championship, and a case full of tournament trophies. More importantly, she had finally reached the much-coveted and long dreamt of ranking of World #1. The Best Player in the World.

With a record among the best in the game’s history and consecutive years with the #1 ranking, the stage was set for Laurance to truly become the face of billiards on an international level.

An articulate and passionate spokeswoman for the game, with head-turning good looks and a down-to-earth, good-natured sense of humor, The Striking Viking, in one quick strike, was all over the media. In 1992 she became, and still remains, the only pool player to ever appear as the feature cover story in the prestigious “New York Times Magazine,” in which she talked about cleaning up a much-maligned sport and her desire to have people see the beauty of the game in the same way she did. That article, and an ability to entertain a national audience by doing captivating trick shots, led to appearances on a broad range of national TV shows, including “The David Letterman Show,” “Live with Regis and Cathy Lee,” “The Today Show,” and many others.

Profiles in Sports Illustrated, People, Glamour Magazine and other national publications added to Laurance’s expanding presence, as did the 1994 WPA World 9 Ball title. All of it bringing as well an increasing demand for her corporate trick shot exhibitions (which continues stronger than ever), and a client list that now includes JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Pepsi, Sony, and automobile software giant OEConnections.

It was at one such corporate outing, at the Vantage Golf Championship in Winston-Salem, NC, that she met actor and golfer Mitch Laurance. It was the beginning of a relationship that has turned into 11 years of a storybook marriage, and a life on the Grand Strand that includes, for Ewa, an adventurous combination of pool and of golf, of frenetic business travel and tranquil home life with family and animals.

“Mitch and I got married in Charlotte, NC in 1994, and golf was not only responsible for our meeting, but for our move to Myrtle Beach,” Laurance says. When she began to do a lot more corporate trick shot exhibitions, she realized that golf was a good way to tie into that world. The fact that Mitch was an avid player and could offer his celebrity event connections the chance to invite Ewa to events, allowed Ewa not only the ability to enjoy the game with her husband, but the opportunity to pursue golf with almost the same zeal as she had her pool game, and to expand her ties to the golfing world in her own right.

As with pool, she has found a way to turn another passion into an interesting and rewarding part of life, in what she considers golfing heaven. “Mitch was already the host of ‘On The Green Golf Video Showcase’ in Myrtle Beach, and we had come down to the Grand Strand so many times while we lived in Charlotte that we both decided to make the move to a place we love. It’s the best of all worlds, with an incredible variety of courses, fantastic people and entertainment, and a wonderful quality of life,” Laurance says.

Ewa was just featured in “Golf For Women” Magazine, and plays in a multitude of celebrity Pro Am and charity events, including the ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic in Los Angeles, the Jimmy V Celebrity Classic in Raleigh, NC, and The Crosby in Winston-Salem, NC. She has competed in the LPGA Skins Game Pro Am (paired with Laura Davies), and this fall will participate in the PGA Tour Skins Game Pro Am in La Quinta, CA, with a couple of golfers named Tiger Woods and Fred Couples, among others.

And after hiring Ewa to perform trick shots and play pool as a way to draw golfers to their booth at the World Amateur Handicap Championship in 2004, Grand Strand developer Burroughs & Chapin recently hired Ewa to be the spokesperson for their “MyrtleBeachGolfTrips.com” brand and its golf courses. It is a relationship, and an opportunity, that Ewa takes seriously. “I think America is the only country in the world where you can have a dream and then create a way to truly live it,” she says, adding that she relishes the chance to help increase awareness for Myrtle Beach golf.

“Myrtle Beach, for a golfer, is a dream, a golf mecca. Where else can you play a different, great course every weekend for two years, and not play the same course twice?”

Ewa still competes full time on the WPBA Classic Tour and does billiards Color Commentary for ESPN. She is the President of the Women’s Professional Billiards Association and the Co-Host of GSN’s “BallBreakers” TV show. In 2004 Ewa became only the fifth woman in the history of the sport to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame. You can find more information on Ewa Mataya Laurance at www.StrikingViking.com.