– Play has been suspended three times already due to thunder and lightning. Looks like a monday finish.

– When most of us players go to the pool in shorts and t-shirt, Jiménez has his straw hat, a Cohiba (same brand as his cigars) shirt, a cigar in his mouth, a fitting beach bag and short flower pattern shorts. He takes every ocassion seriously and dresses the part. He is a living legend.

– The course is playing quite tough. A lot of long irons into the greens as expexted. Daniel Chopra is leading after two days at 7 under par. Nicely done!

– I’ve never had this much ice-cream in two days. Should be a crime to put ice-cream on a buffé table. It feels like you have to take some to get enough value for your money.

– This is a bad place if you want to get a tan. There is about 1 hour of sun every morning before the big dark clouds come in. 

– I’m playing with Shigeki Maruyama and he is playing with yellow golf balls. ”Im playing a weird ball”, he said when showing the ball to us on the first tee. It feels a little bit like playing with my mom:)

See you!

Tournament BBQ yesterday at the hotel…love free food!

Impressive dress with a built-in table:)

Barclays Singapore Open in ice. Melted so quickly.

Somebody said this was Singapore’s best band. Hope that somebody was seriously wrong!:)

Shot 70 (+1) today and was really pleased with that. It’s not an easy course and I didn’t hit many fariways. Started off playing good but the long game got worse throughout the round. The short game saved my score though and I was pleased to finsih under par. Had some work to do on the range after. There are a lot of things I want to change in my swing and I will take care of them over the winter break with my coach but I still need to work on a few of them now. Don’t know if that’s the best thing to do but it feels like it at the moment so I’m gonna go with that feeling.

There are mainly two things I want to fix in my swing. The first is to get over more on my right side at the top of the backswing. The second is to not drop the club inside on the downswing. It sounds easy to do, but I have tried for a few years now and it’s getting better but it takes some time, that’s for sure. We’ll see how many years I got left until it’s good:) But, I love having stuff to work on. 

A funny thing in Asia is that the more it rains, the more players are practicing. It’s too hot if the sun is out. It was pooring here, but it felt so good so I kept going.

Aussie Rick Kulacz on the bus with his mini-club! 

Play was suspended due to this heavy rain. It kept going for a while and flooded some of the greens but I was at the hotel so I didn’t mind;) Nothing is better than swimming in the rain!

Tropical.

Some more technique grinding in the room now. Only a few more years…;) Come on!!!

See you later!

Yesterday’s photos. 

Such a nice bunker and then you see one of the ugliest things there is…

This is right besides the 6th hole. Kinda cool to see how it works. Since there are hundreds of ships waiting to get into port, I can now understand that it takes ages for shipments to arrive.

Green one side of the plastic lining and fringe on the other. I think this is to keep different grasses away from each other. 

It looks like they spend more time trimming the walkways to the fairways here then other courses spend cutting their greens.

The 18th hole. Looks good I think and it’s a great finishing hole. Just reachable.

11th hole. This is one of the few holes not close to the water but I think it’s the most beautiful hole on the course. Kinda looks like Augusta with the flowers. 

The fans are great. Too bad they took them away for the tournament.

The rollercoaster just besides the 13th hole. Weird:)

All the ships waiting to get into port.

Was going to upload a bunch of pictures from today. Had a lot of time to photograph during the pro-am and I found so many weird things about this course and it’s surroundings. It’s one of the best courses, specially condition wise, we play all year but there are so many weird things about it. But, I can’t upload the pics due to some computer failure. I try again tomorrow. 

One very very weird thing about this course is that it’s long, it can play very long if the pins are placed at the back of the long greens, but you can only hit driver twice. The fairways cut in or there are bunkers placed at around 230-240 meters from every tee box. It’s really weird, never seen this before. Since you can’t hit it far from the tee, you have a lot of long irons left into the greens. A usual hole is hybrid of the tee and then a 5 iron to the green. Normally on tour, we hit mostly drives off the tees and have wedges or short irons left. The last few courses we have played have all been short with low scoring and now this course plays long and scores are usually high. The winning score here last time was around par I heard. So, I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. I’m a little nervous I have to say. We’ll see how it goes. I can only do my best, if that’s not enough, I have to train and try again huh!?

Hope all is good with you!!!

Bye

Woke up at 2.30 am today as jet lag was kicking in. Couldn’t go back to sleep so it was perfect to catch the 5.30 am bus to the course. We wanted to get the practice round done early when there are not many players on the course. I like taking a lot of time around the greens during a practice round to get as accustomed with them as possible. 

Just me and the water supplier guy were on the bus:)

The whole locker room to myself.

The range is one of the best I’ve been on. The turf is short and pure and the tee box is perfectly flat. 

Here you can see the clouds building up early. After 15 holes, practice was suspended due to thunder and lightning. 

3rd hole going down towards the river. At this time it was around 25 degrees. From then on, it got very hot.

It’s the most unusual setting for a golf course, I like it though!

I don’t think I have ever seen a golf course in such great condition. Every blade of grass is perfectly manicured. The course plays fairly long since the fairways are narrow and the ruff cuts in on a lot of holes around driver distance, so you have to be a little defensive off the tee. 

The 4th hole is a nice par 5 going over water on both 1st and 2nd shot.

I got a lot of work done early and could head back to the hotel for a gym session and some relax time. It’s so hot here so my plan is to practice less but with good quality and then try to get a lot of rest at the hotel so I can stay fresh throughout the whole week. We’ll see how it goes. I can’t wait for the tournament to start on thursday!

Coffe time now to get some energy for the gym…Then it’s nap time:)

See you!

I’ve always wondered where the best place for golf is. I was jealous of the American guys in college who could play all year round. But, is it only positive to have that opportunity? In Sweden we can’t do that. We used to go all out during the summers and play as much as we could and then do other sports in the winter. We also practiced golf inside in big tents to keep the swings in shape. The courses wouldn’t be playable until the beginning of May. 

Still, we have a lot of good golfers in Sweden. But, there are a lot of good golfers everwhere in the world. I think the quality of courses play a big role. We don’t have any male Swedish major winners and I think the main reason for that is beacuse we are not used to palying on ”major tough courses”. We now have one or maybe two courses that could be tough enough to practice at to understand how tough a major set-up course is. But then, they have to prepare the course for a couple of months before to make it a good test. Bro Hof is a great course and you can make it as tough as any other course there is but that’s probably the only course in Sweden which is tough enough. Australia and America have courses that are brutally difficult any day of the year. They are in great shape all year as well. We need to shapen up Swedish courses to develop Swedish major winners I think, because we have enough players that can play and compete for the majors, that’s for sure. We just havent reach to the top yet. During my four years in college, I played at least 10 courses that had or will host major championships and they were great tests and made me understand what I needed to work on in my game to have a chance to play them. I was so surprised of how hard they were. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. 

Here in Asia, I don’t understand how they practice as much as they do. It’s so hot! I practiced for a few hours today and then I couldn’t stand it. I guess you get used to it but it’s impressive if you can put in a whole day of practice here in this heat. 

I’ll try to spend more time in the gym this week and less on the driving range to spare some energy for the tournament. The course looks in great shape and it looks like a great test as well. Trying to get out on the course at dawn tomorrow for a practice round by myself before most players get there and before the heat is unbarable. 

Sentosa Golf Club

Last day to enter the ”lob wedge competition” described in the previous blog post is the 5th of November. There will be prices for 2nd and 3rd place finishes as well. 

Alex

I saw that some of you guys liked that flop shot I showed in the last video. I love practicing that shot. It feels like it helps the rest of my game and especially my short game. The easy shots seems even easier after practicing that one. I came to think of an idea, what if you guys post some videos of your own trick shots and the winner gets on of my 60 degree wedges sent to you. You just post your video and then whoever wins, I take your adress and I’ll send it. Good deal? And to make it fair, if a 20 hanicap player makes a pretty sweet trick I’ll consider that better than if a scratch golfer would do the same so feel free to post videos no matter how good you are! And just put down the handicap as well. 

The last day has been boring but kind of sweet still. Just travelling. 

Started out in Monaco and a really weird thing is that it’s that cheaper to take a helicopter to Nice Airport than to take a normal cab. But, I ended up getting a lift from Henric which was great. He is always fun to hang out with!

A quick flight to Frankfurt and then a 12 hour flight to Singapore from there. I slept the whole way almost so felt great when I landed. 

Singapore is such a nice place. Everything looks so clean! We’re staying at the Sentosa Island and it’s really cool! The beach is right outside the window and the golf course is walking distance away. This is set up to be a great week. Can’t wait to get up tomorrow to go practice. Haven’t practiced hard for a week now so it’s time to get some work done. 

Heard that this course is one of the best in Asia. Haven’t seen it yet but I like the sound of that. It’s always nice to play nice courses! It’s such a good run of tournaments now here in Asia and then a month and a half break before the next season starts. So, I’m gonna put all my energy into these three events and see what happens and then get some work done on my game over the break.

Cheaper than taxi??? Weird!

Henric is helping out

Never seen such a nice city highway before!

Looks great

Perfect cool down after the gym

Bye for now!

Just at the airport in Nice going to Singapore. Never been this excited to go and play…after 5 slow relaxing days in Monaco I feel that my motivation is on top! On a airport computer which has a really messed up keybord so these three sentences took 10 minutes. Get back to you in Singapore. Happy times!

Tried to answer some questions from the comments…

Q. Sort of funny when, you shoot 10 under the last round and just a couple of days earlier, you wrote that you didn´t think such scores were possible on Oceânico Victoria Golf Course.

Could it be the mental part of the game? If they can, then why shouldn´t?

A. I think as soon as someone shoots a crazy number, all other players know it is possible and aim for that. Before play starts, everybody imagines how the scores will be and if someone shows us you can score really low we change our minds about scoring. I thought, around 18 under would win and when somebody opens with 9 under you understand it’s going to be lower and you change your attitude towards the course.

Q. Hi Alex, great playing so far this year!! Just wondered your thoughts on practicing. I am a pro and find my self practicing 5,6,7 hrs a day on all aspects of the game. I prob only play twice a week or so. Should I be playing on the course most days do you think??

A. I believe there has to be a balance. Golf is all about scoring low. To do that, your technique has to be good but you also have to be good at playing the game. Not hitting separate shots. You have to be able to manage your way around a course. I have started playing more and more lately and find it very helpful for my game. There are so many good playing exercises that will improve your strategy and toughness on the course. Although, too much playing and not enough practcing is not good either. Try different things and you will find out what works for you. I usually practice 2, 5 hours and play 18 holes a day during my training weeks. Then some technique work at home and gym at night. 

Q. Do you have a gym exercise that’s specially good for golfers?

A. Since I started doing non-golfing exercises in the gym, my game has improved and I’m not injured. So, I think an overall good physique is the best. Do a lot of different exercies and make sure you stay fit.

Q. Do you know if there is any videos of the HIO or the 4 iron on the 16th the last day?

A. I played too early for the camera guys to show up. Sorry, next time I’ll try to play better during the start of the week as well!:)

Q. I got two questions for you: First, do you have anyone helping you with travel bookings and such things? Second, when I hit my wedges, my club gets in a very steep position. Do you have any exercises that will help me get it more ”on-plane”?

A. First question: Yeah, I do. My management company helps me out and it’s great. I could book myself before tournaments, but when things change during a tournament with times and so on, it’s nice when they can change flights when I’m out playing. They are a big help. Also, I’m not a big fan of a lot of administrative work, I rather work on new shots. 
Second question: Try to put balls down in an arc like I showed in the video I posted in the previous blog. That will help you understand the swing plane and the path the club should take. It gives you a good image. Just have the balls there every time you parctice and your palne will get better without you thinking about it.

Q. Awesome blog you’ve got! Both fun and interesting reading, and great videos too. I was just wondering a little about that flop shot. I’ve been practicing a lot on it but I just can’t get it right. Do you have any good tip so I can impress my friends with it next summer? That would be cool!

A. Haha, I love trying that shot too! It makes you understand how the club should work. I have tried a lot of different things. The last thing I tried works the best no question. I open the blade a lot as you can see. Then I try to ”cup” my left wrist during the back swing which will increase the loft even more. Then on the down swing I try to scoop underneath the ball to make it pop straight up. You need to get the club on the right plane so it the ball spins straight. It’s hard if you cut it, it will never go as fast up. It will just slide to the right. Try and see:)