We went up to the mountains to hit some balls…

Bye bye:)

It’s been raining in Monaco for three straight days…

…But it’s ok since I needed a few days off from golf anyway. I’ve done some work on the computer and I’m trying to learn a movie program so I can get good at editing movies. Then 1 hour of working out every day and then just trying to get some rest. After three instensive golf weeks I needed a little break to get my motivation back up again. In the past, I never used to take breaks from golf. I practiced every day and it’s not the best way to do it I think. Now, I rest until I can’t stand not being on a golf course. Then, I know I have the motivation I need to practice and play with quality.  

I have been doing some technique work at home though…couldn’t resist:)

The weather looks like it’s clearing up and we can go practice some golf!!!

All golf courses down here seems to be located away from the cities and the ocean up in the mountains. They all have stunning views…

Bye

Just came inside from a cold and rainy Monaco…Feels weird to be cold down here. Usually it’s sunny and nice but maybe later in the week the sun will come out again when it’s time for golf. Now, I focus on the gym and recovery for a couple of days. And trying to eat well, which I think is the hardest part. I love bad food but it’s not great for the body I guess…

Here is a short video from last’s week tournament in Vilamoura, Portugal.

Steak and shake after workout is great:) Just like in college…

Later!

Got a photo to hang on the wall from my swing coach Pete Cowen after I won the Omega Masters. Love this photo of Ben Hogan. He looks comfortable.

I made Pete sign it. I’m very impressed by Pete’s knowledge about golf. He can show you any shot as well. He has helped me a ton!

Here are some questions and answers from last week:

Q. Can you have a look at my swing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkozV1X-lAI

     Norwegian, 17 years old. Scratch handicap.

A. I can honestly say that is one of the best swings I have seen. You can still polish it a touch but overall you have a an incredible action! It goes up great in the backswing with the correct loft and it comes down the plane with slightly more loft on the club which is the best move you can have. The swing has an in-and-on look. It means the club looks like it comes a touch over the top on the down swing but it doesn’t. It just perfect. Then it’s free flowing through the ball. Unreal! This plane is exactly what I’m looking after. Good luck with your game!!! This is good stuff!!!

Q. Hole in one then an eagle wow how many times you done that?

A. Never ever!!!

Q. Im watching your scores on the European tour website and you got a hole in one!!!! Well played!! Hope u post a video of that would love to see it, what club and shot did you play? finish well and get in the top 10 mate! How many holes in one have you had in tournament and non tournament play? Have you won anything because of your hole in one?

A. No video of the hole-in-one. Sorry! Hit a 5-iron 198 meters. A little draw which landed 6 meters short and rolled in:) First hole-in-one in a tournament. Second ever. First one was when I was 12 years old. It was about time.

Q. By the way, on the European Tour Race to Dubai Show your name was already associated with the upcoming Ryder Cup. How do you feel about that?

A. Feels great to be mentioned! I really want to play that tournament! It’s the ultimate challenge!

Q. By the way what is the model of the Casio Exilim that you use yourself? Would like to buy one of those myself but some of them are just really expensive…

A. I just dropped that camera but it was a normal Casio Exilim. Around 250 Euros. 

Q. Good luck today, I’ll follow you on the live scoring. I have some questions for you:
1) It looks like you work out a lot in the gym during tournaments, how many hours a week do you work out both on a tournament week and an off-week?
2) Except for practise- and tournament-rounds, how much do you practise golf during both tournament-weeks and off-weeks?

A.  I do about 5 hours of working out during a tournament week including flexibility, heavy weights, biking, trunk stability etc. I train more during an off week. The sessions are longer since I don’t have to be alert the next day. 

    Exept for the playing- and practice rounds I practice about 2, 5 hours a day including the warm-up session of about 1 hour and 15 minutes. During an off week, I train about the same amount as during a tournament and I play 18 holes as well, usually worse ball.  

Q. I noticed that you got a Mac Book, was just wondering whethere you sometimes do some swing analysis on your Mac and if you do what kind of software do you use for that? V1, Gasp etc do not work on Mac unfortunately.

A. I dont do any with a program on here. I just do it straight on the camera. It works fine whit that Casio Exilim camera with great slow motion video. I don’t know what programs work on a Mac. Sorry! But there has to be some. 

Q. What do you think of allt he low cuts? What do you prefer the cut to be?

A. I think the cut should be around level par. There has been a lot of low cuts this year. There has been less rough overall during the year so the cuts are a little lower. It makes us play for birdies a lot more and the crowd likes it but I like it a little tougher. It makes us improve our games. 

Q. Do you have any tips on a good putting mat? Is your Odyssey mat good?  

A. The Odyssey mat is good. It’s small and handy and rolls well! You can look at callawaygolf.com and see if they have any there otherwise a normal mat will do fine I think.

Just got to Monaco and trying to get sorted for a good training week.   

See you later!

Had no big expectations of today when I woke up but I ended up having the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course! Started awesome with a lot of birdies and finished with hole-in-one, eagle, par to shoot 62 (-10). I couldn’t stop laughing after those two ”eagles”. Then straight to the pool to hang out with the other players. This week is one of the best on tour. Everything about the tournament is great!

Laying in tied 6th right now. Gonna drop down some but I’m still really happy! My last hole-in-one was when I was 12 years old so it was about time:)

Pierre again stepped up and took some photos from the hotel pool looking over the 18th hole. 

Was really happy after that hole-in-one!

No off to Monaco to get some work done and get a camera! Heard Nikon is good!???

See you later!

Pierre was handling the camera yesterday since I have no idea where my camera is. Hate loosing things and specially that camera which is great for videoing the swing with super slo-mo mode. My days look pretty similar during a tournament week so sorry for not photoing more different things but I’ll travel soon to snap some other stuff…Pierre is proud over his mega zoom camera though in these shots. A little blurry still I think:)

Early morning course preparations in the dark from the greens crew.

Me and Colin on the course

3rd hole

Tried a new series in the gym that I’m gonna work on next week when Pierre isn’t there. There is a lot of technique which you have to get right. Just like with golf. 

Pro photographer:)

Tee off at 9.58 today and laying in 45th place. I got 4 shots up to top-20 which would help me a lot on the rankings. That’s my goal for today. To get there I need to have a good attitude out there, whatever happens. 

See you!

Been a weird day…felt great warming up before the round. Started horrific with par-dubbelbogey-bogey and it was just to put on the fighting face! Got it together and made the cut on the number. I’m very happy that I faught back. The scores are crazy again this week. Francesco Molinari is leading on 15 under and Harrington shot 62 today. They must have been playing so good! Hats off! I didn’t even think that was possible here. My 4 under is not even close but I’m still happy to play over the weekend. It’s such a nice week with a good course, an outstanding hotel and 30 degrees and sun every day. I don’t want to leave:) 

Had some problems with my swing today…I’m probably too technical most of the time but I think I need to improve my technique to get better. Now, I get underneath the correct swing plane and hit a big draw or leave it out right. Not the most fun feeling to have when you are over the ball. But, I will get closer and closer as long as I work on the right things. It’s all about finding good exercises and then stick to them. Played with Justin Rose and James Kingston and they both played great so my game felt worse than it probably was. Worked on some things on the range after and working on some things in the room right now. Gotta get it right for the big upcoming events. 

Speaking of that, this is my schedule for the rest of the year:

19-24 October Monaco Training

25 Oct-1 Nov Barclays Singapore Open, Singapore 

2-8 Nov HSBC Champions Shanghai, China

9-11 Hong Kong

12-15 Dubai Training

16-22 Race To Dubai, Dubai

Then some rest and some training somewhere…

All those events are big and some good finsihes will get me in the top-50 in the world and that would be unreal. Woud get into a lot of good tournaments next year if I can do that. I need a good training week next week in Monaco. 

This has been a great week for my strength training…breaking all my old records…just did 19 chin-ups…I’m so happy right now! My goal for this year was 20 chin-ups and I still have a couple of months to do that. I think it’s the new strategy of drinking coffe before the gym and protein shake after and trying to beat Edfors as my motivation that made me perform better. Edfors is strong!  

Mikko getting ready for dinner…

Me trying to look busy…

…and Pierre still happy after getting beaten in the weekly chin-ups competition. I would cry:)

Good night. Sleep time! And maybe some Henrik Dorsin on youtube! 

Tried to get to the putting green early yesterday so there weren’t too many players practicing.

Thought I wasn’t in the Pro-Am so wanted to get the early practice in so we could just hang out by the pool afterwards becasue it’s seriously hot here. Somehow I got into the Pro-Am so I took a break by the pool before playing…

One thing Robert Karlsson has taught me is to save energy during the week so you are fresh on sunday afternoon when it matters the most. That’s why I really could enjoy the pool. A few years ago, I would have been hitting hundreds of balls instead and wearing myself out.

Pro-Am shots…

Still sore after that gym session two days ago so Pierre gave me a free card today…thanks a lot! I will never beat you in chin-ups again:)

After a long day it was nice with some Japanese food in the marina…

Now it’s time to prepare for today’s play…little nervous but I like that feeling…It means I care I think.

See you!

Felt like this day has been the most productive day in a while!!! Really good! Started off white some putting to get the feel for the greens. Then a little range session with Mike Walker, Pete Cowen’s assistant, who is really good! Started working with an old drill, putting the left hand underneath the right to get a nice feeling for how the body should move.

Better ”slot” position than with my usual grip:)

Colin and Mike Walker looking for things in the game that we can improve

Played a practice round with Robert Karlsson, it’s great that he is back on tour! The round was great when we didn’t have anybod in front of us or behind so we could hit a lot of shots on and around the greens to get a good feel for the course. Like playing long practice rounds, feels like the more time I spend on a golf course, the better I know it. Kind of logical…:)

11th hole at Oceanico Victoria…great par 5 with a cool second shot into a small green

Then it was time for some gym with Pierre Johansson (my physio) and Johan Edfors. Johan has worked with Pierre for a long time and he is very strong and beats me in every exercise. It kind of sucks, but I’m trying to get closer to his standard which is a great motivation.

We finished the session with a chin-ups competition…

…in third place with 16 chin-ups, Pierre Johansson!

In second place with 17 chin-ups, me!

And in first place with 18 chin-ups, the unbeatable Johan Edfors.

Although I lost to Johan, I broke my old record of 14 chin-ups. Don’t know how I could increase it by three but I guess it was the espresso I took just before the session. I never drink coffe, but Pierre told me it could make me perform better so I downed one as quick as I could:) Is it bad when you are more motivated before a session in the gym than before playing golf?

A nice swim after to cool down was the perfect ending of a perfect day!

Later!

Q: Routine wise on the greens, are you a read, line up & stroke guy or is there any notion of visualisation, feel & will the ball into the hole?? Come on man, give up the secret!!

A. I’m pretty much a read, line up and stroke guy. My practice is a lot more ”just do it” training with no thoughts and mostly on auto mode. I’m not reading the greens in practice, I’m just trying to make the putt on instinct. I want that practice to move into my tournament game more and more and hopefully I can be on auto mode in the tournaments as well in a few years. 

Q. I guess your putting is more like Steve Stricker, more strait and upright? I really like his putting, looks so easy. What a sick round Ross had !!! Ok, it’s a pretty easy course but 24 under after 3 rounds, its not minigolf, or is it? Feels like its a putting comp… when you guys are on a a course like that :-/ Whats your view on these kinds of scores you can do these days? 

A. Yeah, Stan Utley’s (my putting coach) putting is a lot more upright then mine is. Steve Stricker putts great! Hands are higher on-line with the shaft. I try to get my hands higher but I find it a little difficult to do under pressure. We’ll see what happens. Yes, it was the easiest course we have played this year (according to the scores), but hat off to Ross, he played unreal golf. The course was fairly short and not to much rough. It’s nice to play a course like that once in a while, because it boosts your confidence. Although, I much rather play tougher courses so I can improve my game. On an easy course, it’s all about putting. On a tougher course, all parts of the game are tested. I like it when the winning score is around 10 under par.

Q. That magic top-50 mark on the World Rankings is getting closer. A few more good tournaments during the fall will do it. Is that an important goal for you or do you see it more as a bonus if you accomplish what you want on the golf course?

A. It’s a nice feeling getting closer to that spot. I want to play in all the biggest tournaments and the key to do that is to be top-50 in the world. So, it’s a very important thing for me. To get there, I need to do accomplish the things I want to achieve on the course. 

Keep asking questions, I try to help and answer them and you also help me reflecting on what I do good and what I need to improve. So, thanks a lot!:)