Really happy with finishing 4th last week. I didn’t really think that after that bad start on thursday. But, I accomplished my goal of only looking forward, not dwell on the past. It went well this time:)

Learnt a lot from the experienced and great players I played with in Madrid. Thongchai Jaidee has the best attitude I’ve seen and that’s the reason he has won so many times. He hits the ball great as well, but he is always happy on the course and it looks like he loves every minute out there. Jimenez played nicely as well. He has a special aura around him, he looks like a matador and is so great with the crowd. His game is very good and his short game must be among the best in the world. 

Flew late last night over to Portugal to play the Portugal Masters at Oceanico Victoria Golf Club in Villamoura. 

Madrid is a nice place but Villamoura is incredible. The beach is five minutes away and the golf course is one minute away. Best of both worlds. 

I had two goals today. The first was to re-energize myself to get ready for this week. The second was to not play golf. The second one was pretty tough since we are this close to the golf course…

Got a great deal at this hotel and the hotel pool looks amazing…

Headed down to Villamoura marina to have a look if we could find anything to do to get away from the golf course…we found a dolphin safari trip! 

Cruising out from the marina

Cool animals…Then we headed for the caves down by the beach…

Here is the ”lion’s rock”

On the way back to the marina, we saw Christiano Ronaldo’s summer house, pretty nice!

After that I tried to find some other activity other than golf…the gym was the first thing I could think off. 

Just ordered room service with Mikko. He is still happy after his second place finish yesterday. It made him secure his card for next year and he really deserved the great finish.

Later!

Fast update. Seriously low scores on the golf course, 60 from Ross McGowan today and 63-63 from Mikko Ilonen last two days. Really bad fotball in the Sweden-Denmark match today. Zlatan was good though! Madrid is not the place to eat before midnight…Burger King is the only place open, feels like a great excuse.

Sweet to have a dinner in the city with the guys after just staying in and having room service every night. Saw a little of Madrid. Huge city. We stay really close to Real Madrid’s football stadium, Santiago Bernabeu, but there are no ”la Liga” games this week. Bad timing!

Some photos from today…

View from the gym

Watching the President’s Cup in the gym…I need to get a life!:)

The city view from the hotel room. 

Mikko Ilonen is tired after shooting two 63’s in a row! Amazing playing!

Tomorrow is going to be a great day with loads of opportunities and I hope I can take them all to move up the leaderboard!

See you then!

Here are some answers for the questions you sent me!

Q. Great Video and a great swing, however who do u believe has the best swing on the European Tour and who has the best swing on the PGA Tour? My top three swings would be Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald and someone called Alexander Noren lol

A. I believe Tiger Woods has the best swing on the PGA Tour and Sergio Garcia has the best one on the European Tour.

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Q. AL, haven’t asked you this, but i take it you are practising with the new grooves for next year? How do they feel? I’ve heard from some guys that the difference is huge, which quite surprised me to be honest.

A. I tried them out on the range at Gleneagles. They felt the same for the irons and very close to the same for the wedges. I only tried from the fairway cut grass and maybe there will be a bigger difference from the rough. Callaway will have a new softer ball, which still goes further so it won’t be to big of a difference overall I think.

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Q. Does your brother play golf too? is golf a game that has been played in your family before such as your dad? do you play golf with your family often? 

A.My whole family plays, brother is the best with hcp 3 and mom and dad are ok as well. I play a few rounds a year with them…It’s fun…serious bets going…the loosers do the dishes.

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Nice day today! No bogeys and 5 under par, 67. I like these kind of days. Can I maybe get some more like this, please?:)

From this morning around 9 a’clock…looks more like 6 a’clock but the sun doesn’t get up before 8.15 here in Madrid.

Saw Pelle with his sweet look on the putting green after the round…

In the taxi on the way to the gym I saw some serious artists in the road. At every red light they show up to do some tricks and then go around to the cars hoping to get some money for their performance. 

Gonna post some Questions and answers now. Look at the next blog post.

Bye for now!

Played with Thomas Björn and Thongchai Jaidee today and it was really inspiring…Thomas hit it so good all day. Such impressive iron shots. Straight and low into the wind. Great control. Tongchai is a very good player. He makes it look really easy to play golf and has one of the best attitudes out here. He takes a bogey with a laugh and gets on with it. 

Started great but had a terrible 5th hole, a par 5. Hit it left off the green with my second shot on the carpath and it bounced down into heavy rough. When we didn’t find at once, I decided to stop looking for it since it was such a bad spot and it would be better off playing my provisional ball from the greenside bunker. The spectators didn’t understand what I meant and kept looking for it and found it. The rule says I have to play that ball if it’s found within 5 minutes. It was a bad lie, but I could still hit it out. Hit it ok but the ball hit a wooden pole a bit forward and bounced further back into a really bad spot. From there, I had to take a penalty drop and I ended up making a triple bogey, 8. I was furious. If they would have stopped looking for my ball when I told them, I would have made 5, 6 or 7. Now, I made an 8. I felt like all the energy just ran out of me. I started so well with birdie chances on every hole and now I was three over after 5 holes.  

All i tried to do after that was to hit a few good shots in a row and get my game together again. Started playing better and better and when the round was finished I shot 1 under, 71. I was really proud of myself. I did it! This is what I’ve practiced the most at. To try to move on, whatever happens and focus on the next shot. If I give up in the middle of a round, it’s the same as giving up golf in whole. Always play the next shot with total focus and koncentration. You can’t do that if you’re still mad about the last shot. My college coach told me that! 

There were a lot of good scores today and I’m not even close to the top but I’m still happy that I got it together today. There is still a chance with three rounds to go. Anything can happen!:)

Thanks for the videos some of you guys sent me! I posted some comments in the comments box and if anyone else wants to send some videos feel free. I’d love to have a look and maybe help out…I have a lot of spare time at night here. Room service almost every nigh and good internet connection:) Could it get any better!!??

Later!

His swing was the best!

Just great!

If there are some who would like translation of my blog to Swedish you can just click on the link below. It’s not perfectly translated but it’s understandable..

Om det är någon som vill ha min blogg översatt till svenska så kan ni klicka på länken nedan. Det är ingen perfekt översättning men det är fungerar. Önskar jag hade tid att skriva på båda språken. Förlåt, men hoppas att det här också går bra.

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=sv&js=y&u=blogg.aftonbladet.se%2Falexandernoren&sl=auto&tl=sv&history_state0

Many thanks to my brother for finding this link:)

Pro-Am today was slow as always…sounds like I don’t like them but I actually like playing them since you get a good look at the course and it’s fun when your partners are cool. Since I didn’t have a fair chance to play the course yesterday it was nice to see it today. They have had some trouble with the weather here in Madrid so it doesn’t look as nice as it can but the greens are in good shape. Our Pro-Am team happened to win today and it was meant for me to stick around for a late dinner and price giving tonight but just I got out of it! Hate late dinners. Rather be on the internet and chilling in the room.

My game was a little bit better today. Got some work done after the round. Hate not hitting it as well as I like. Such a bad feeling. But, on the other hand. If I’m improving from year to year I’m on the right track. It felt so good in Switzerland hitting wise and now it’s not quite the same. But the worst thing is to try to find an old feeling. I need to improve and move forward. If I want to win again, I need to get better than I was in Switzerland. Jeez, I want to win again. It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had. Just got some new motivation. Need to watch some good swings of Ben Hogan on the internet and some motivation videos of Alexander Karelin…

Improvement in hotel room from Switzerland at least:)

Got a nice swing video in a comment on the blog…was great to see the motivation of a young player who wants to get better. If you guys have any videos of your swing, it would be fun to watch and maybe I can help a little. 

Later!

Had a rough last 24 hours with no luck. First, a lot of waiting for the flights to Madrid. Then, the last flight got delayed an an hour and a half, which made us land after midnight. Then, I was the only player on the flight who didn’t get the golf bag. No big deal I thought, wrong!!! The cue for the lost baggage desk was super long and I was off course last in line. Then, finally in the car on the way to the hotel, the driver had no idea where the hotel was and had to cruise around the hole city to find it. Not what you want to happen 2 a’clock in the morning. But after a sweet night snack, it was all good…I love this job but the travel can sometime gets really boring and draining.

No clubs on the course but after borrowing some I could finally practice. Needed to get rid of my nast hook from last week. I tried to hit fades from a shut club face to sort it out and it became better and better. No hook anymore and strong flights. I hate seeing the ball fall of the earth left. Rather see it slide a little to the right, but with a strong trajectory. 

Then we hit the gym and it’s weird how they charge so differently everywhere you go. In Monaco I paid 24 Euros for a session. Last week in Scotland they charged 3,50 Euros and here in Madrid it’s back to being superexpensive again with 25 Euros. Crazy prices, but when traveling, that’s how it is sometimes.

Worked some with my putting coach Stan Utley who is over from Phoenix to work with some players and also to play in the tournament. He has won on the PGA Tour a while back and now wiping off the dust from the clubs again. I hope he plays well, he is such a nice guy and a great coach. 

Got a question from a guy in Australia who wondered about college in America. I went to Oklahoma State University and really liked the whole experience. A lot of my friends liked the college system as well but some didn’t. It’s all about the place you go to. If it fits in with what you want to do. An important factor is how much time you want to put into studying, golfing, working out and into other training. There are all kinds of colleges and coaches and there is a college for everyone. You just have to find the right one. I can guide you a little bit if you have questions. Otherwise, there are people who work with finding out the right college for you. 

Now, it’s relax time and I love the fast internet in the room! It’s almost more important than the speed of the greens on the course…almost:)

Later!

Just uploaded a video from last weeks tournament!

Later!