After finishing the last round in China, I had 10 hours to kill at the hotel before heading to the airport. I didn’t think any other players were still there so headed for the gym but there I saw Kaymer, Dougherty and Fernandez-Castano working out trying to make the time pass as well. We were all tired but there was nothing else to do. The hotel was in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty nice though to have a lot of time to reflect back on the tournament. I learnt a lot of things and I’m gonna try to describe them here.

1. Never Give Up! Not just the fact that I was 3 over after my first nine holes of the tournament but also by watching Phil Mickelson making up and down on 16 after hitting it only an inch on his first attempt to flop it on the green. Leaving that 16th green on a high, he went on to birdie 17 and par 18 for his one shot win. Off course Tiger was dissapointed not finishing higher than he did, but he cam back from 4 over after 7 holes the last day to finish off the day level par. That’s also strong. 

2. Shortgame is very important. Putting the most important thing there is maybe. Getting up and down from all kind of places will save a round or make a round. A good shortgame will put less pressure on your long game. Saving a par in the middle of a birdie run will help you keep your momentum and keep making birdies. Soren Kjeldsen showed some great shortgame skills and especially his putting. Every putts he hits either goes in or has a great chance of going in.

3. Loft and bounce control is important. Controlling the loft on your club in the swing will help you with your distance control and your spin control. I’m gonna take Kjeldsen as an example again, he hits avery thin divot and gets a lot of loft at impact and a lot of bounce and hits the most beautiful wedge and short iron shots. They all come out at the same speed and height it looks like and when the ball lands it’s dead, it doesn’t spin back. I have worked a lot on keeping the right loft and bounce and I can see a lot of improvement and it’s nice to see someone like Kjeldsen show you beacause then I know that I’m on the right track.

4. Pace yourself. The most important thing is to be fresh and have enough energy all throughout the tournament, especially the last nine holes on sunday when it all happens. I found myself very tired over the weekend beacuse I had trained a lot harder than other weeks. I felt like I needed the practice so I had to take that risk of getting tired and just deal with it. Now, I happened to finish of the tournament great with 5 under the last 7 holes but maybe next time I’m too tired and it will go the other way. I couldn’t see either Tiger, Ernie or Phil practicing after any round last week. It felt like they saved their energy well. 

5. Take your chances. I learnt a lot just playing the 8th hole last week. It was a long par 5, just on the edge of reachable. I hit 4 great drives there and had three good chances of reaching the green in two shots. There was a creek short of the green and long was not the best place to be either. Laying up to a wedge distance was a good play because the wedge shot was fairly easy with a green sloping back at you and a lot of players hit it close for birdies. I’m an aggressive player and I wanted to reach the hole in two. First day, I didn’t even listen to the yardage my caddie gave me and just went for it to find the ball short in the creek. The second day, we had a good yardage for the threewood again and after another good shot found the ball in the creek one more time. The third day I laid up short and wedged it on becasue the wind made it impossible to reach in two. The last day, I had a great yardage again but this time for a hybrid club which I hit good but to find it in the creek again. So, three times I hit good shots and all three times I hit it in the water. You think maybe I would have learned after the first time but I thought so clearly I could do it the second time and especially the last time so I didn’t even think of not making the green and laying up short. After the last time, I just laughed and came to think of what I had read Arnold Palmer saying in an interview. He was asked if he hadn’t been a little too aggressive a lot of the times in his career. He aswered by saying that he has never hit a shot where he thought he wasn’t able to pull it off. I felt exactly the same way about the 8th hole so that’s why I wans’t as mad maybe as people think I should be. Although, I learnt how far my clubs are going so next time I will maybe play a bit more conservatively:)

6. Use energy to gain energy. After being very tired after friday’s round I decided to hit the gym still. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea while being that tired but my physio had told me a workout session will make you tired right after but the next day you will feel better (off course it depends how hard you work out. I did a medium hard workout). And he was right, I came out a lot fresher than I thought and could give myself an opportunity to play well.

To sum it all up, it was a great week. I learnt a lot and I know what to expect in future events like this and I know what I need to work on to move up the leaderboard.

Finally at 2.15 AM I was heading for the airport and the airports are not very busy at 3.15 AM as you can see… 

There was a lot of fog that morning in Shanghai and I was really looking forward to land in sunny Dubai.

And the sun was shining…32 and sunny for the next ten days on the weather forecast. I love it!

The view from the 39th floor. Sharing with Hedblom this training week and it will be great to train with him. He loves practicing so it’s gonna be a hard and fun week. 

Just woke up at 4.45 AM due to jet lag and we are going to the Montgomerie Golf Club today to work on our shortgames. They have a great little par-3 course with short holes and water hazards right around the greens. I love par-3 courses! 

Bye:)