Ante was bored:)

See you!

I was thinking of giving you a insight of what goes through my mind on a day like today. Had a lot going on today, both good and bad things. I shot 2 over par and went from 4th to 40th place, but I’m still happy as I’m sitting here writing.

– Yesterday’s 66 was fresh in my mind but since I’m pretty self critical I wasn’t happy with how I hit the ball. I live by the saying, ”A good swing gets better under pressure, a bad one gets worse”. I was comfortable yesterday that’s why I played pretty good, and got off to a good start and everything felt quite easy. I was still not happy with the the ball strike but managed to hit a lot of greens and keep good momentum all throughout the round. Ok and long driving made it all a bit easier as well.

– Today, I was excited to play and felt better in the warm-up than yesterday. A calm early morning made low scoring possible. I had very high expectations. I thought since I was still not overly happy with how I played yesterday, I knew I could shoot low again since it felt better today. High expectations are great but they can also make you play bad since you put extra pressure on yourself and harder to focus. I wasn’t focused enough and hit a sandwedge in the bunker and started with a double-bogey 6 on the first hole. Wow! The last thing I thought of! And now, being such a scorable day, I had to make up shots. All I could think of the next few holes was how to make birdies. When I TRY TO HARD, I never play well. Let the good rounds happen. Don’t force them would be my plan from here on. Off course, I got two good birdie chances right away but didn’t convert. Got away with some bad shots on the next few holes and saved pars. I was really frustrated and felt like nothing was going my way. I started complaining about bad lies and the unfairness of the different lengths on the roughs and such things. I never make excuses, but today I had a lot of them. Made birdie on 8 and thought good things were coming my way. Not. Two bad bogeys in a row after that made me boil inside. I was so frustrated and started doubting everything I was working at. Was I doing the right things? Had I been training good during the break? Did my swing develop in the way I want and at the speed I want? All these doubts were creeping into my head and I felt so down. A nice birdie on 15 and pars in made me at least feel a bit better and I wasn’t going to destroy my locker. 

– Straight after the round, I went through what had happened and figured out that most of it was my attitude’s fault. And my putting which worked greast yesterday but when you force the putting it doesn’t work. If I could learn to play one shot at a time and one hole at a time and really just focus on that it wouldn’t matter if I had started with a birdie or a 10 today. My focus would still have been the same. There is nothing worse in golf than being frustrated and start to make excuses. Keep your focus and good things will come sooner or later. 

– A good lunch and a nice little break made me all of a sudden excited to practice and work on the things I needed to work on. Although, a lot of today’s big errors were mental, I still had to the ”golf related” work first. Saw Pete again and went over my errors and my bad swing feelings. He comforted me saying, ”things take a long time to perfect, be patient ”. An hour hitting balls and an hour and a half practicing short game made me feel a bit tired of golf and needed to get my head cleared and get my energy back. My biggest flaw as a golfer is that I want to improve constantly. I want to be good yesterday. It’s probably a good thing as well but I never have time to really settle with a swing or a swing feeling before I got something else going. I needed to get off the golf course and see the boys in the gym.

– There is nothing better than going hard in the gym and hang out with your friends after a frustrating day. We push each other in a way that is hard to do on the golf course. To get pumped up on the putting green maybe doesn’t always have a positive affect. In the gym, it does. When we left the gym, my only feeling was satisfaction and I felt like another great day was over. I was working towards my goal all day and I got to experience a lot of different feelings and I got to hang out with fun people. 

Abu Dhabi pics.

Back tomorrow and hope you guys are great! Thanks for all the support! It makes me very happy!!!:)

Alex

Today was a bit tougher than yesterday. 2 over even though I think alex played quite good. A few misses and no luck with the putting.

The double bogey on the first hole was followed by some great approaches but the putts didnt go in. Alex is now -4 and currently in 37th place. 

Garcia and Peter Hanson is playing some great golf and are leading at -11. 

After the round Alex discussed his swing with his golf pro and is now focusing on some putting exercises. 

The crowds are having a good time at the Abu Dhabi golf club. A lot of great golf, perfect weather and a beautiful course. 

Soon we will join Pierre in the gym for some weight exercises before dinner. 

View from the club house early friday morning.

Some practice after the round. 

Great that my brother have kept you guys updated! Was sooo happy to shoot 6 under! A short session on the range afterwards with Mike and then headed to the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 track and it’s cool surroundings.

Mike loves the one handed shots.

The Formula 1 track goes underneath the hotel and you can sit having a coffee and almost touch the cars.

Somewhere down there is the track. The race here is on at night but there were no cars on the track tonight. Too bad but I saw some glimps of it anyway. This setting feels like a modern version of the Monaco Grand Prix. The yachts are here as well.

Inside the lobby at The Yas Hotel. The coolest looking hotel I’ve ever seen.

Up early tomorrow. 7.40 tee off. Wow. Ok.

Ciao

A real solid play today. Loads of good shots and 17 greens in regulation speaks for itself. 

Happy Camper!

Alex speaking to the SkySport commentatories, discussing the new grooves. I bet they said good things about him today. 

Hopefully tomorrow we can bring a bigger crowd, we were a few happy supporters to alex following him around. Friday and saturday is there weekend here so the tournament is expecting lots of more visitorns today. The biggest crowds today were around Casey and Westwood and Stenson and McIlroy. 

Now we will check out the new Formula 1 circuit, heard it is spectacular. 

Alex will update tonight. Stay tuned!!

alex played great the first nine hole, confident and with a smoking hot putter. -3 after nine holes. To bad the short birdie chance on the ninth slipped the hole. 

David Howell is struggling with pulled shots and Damien McGrane are having a tough day at work. Hopefully they can find their game on the last nine holes. 

Another shot from the Pro-Am. As you can see the economic crisis has not put a hold on the constructions. The construction cranes, the cars and calls from the mosques creates a dramatic backrgound to the golf game.

Can you guess who this is?

Yesterdays buffet, best food of all tournaments.  

OK, now another nine holes to go. 

Its a sunny morning (as always) in Abu Dhabi and Alex is starting to warm up. alex has a late tee time for today, 11.55, playing with Damien Macgrame and David Howell.

The winds picked up a bit in the afternoon yesterday but more to ease of the heat than to affect the game. Todays forecast is light wind, sun and 27 C. 

Abu Dhabi Golf Club is making some final preparations for the tournament

alex engineered in Sweden

The gang from the Pro-Am accompanied by the Trophy

alex and Colin are ready

My brother Ante came in today to support and hang out. Also, he also is in charge of the camera this week. Got the Canon 500D with a EFS 18-200mm lens. Works nicely I think. Ante will do some blogging while I play this week. Hope you like his stuff. 

I wouldn’t mind this camera though. The Canon EOS 1D with a monster lens. Gettyimages has some cool pics.

Pics from the room. The interior is crazy…Arabian style with a lot of wood and it’s very comfortable with loads of outlets and adaptors for the camera and computer and stuff. I like that. 

One club for the target line and one for the swing path. Makes it easier to see what to do.

Robert Karlsson is back in Abu Dhabi after a short trip to Sweden to pick up the price for the best team together with Henrik Stenson at the Swedish Sports Award gala. 

Second shot at 18.

My game feels ok. I usually worry a lot about my game but the more I learn about it the more I focus on the day-to-day work. If I do the best I can every day, I think it’ll be good in the end. 

Seriously excited to play tomorrow!

See you then!

It’s been a great day although I got owned in the weight room by Edfors and then saw that backflip video I just posted. Going to bed hoping for a more successful day tomorrow. 

Sleep well!

Alex

My Home Club Team mate Micke knows his shit!

My backflipper is seriously outdated!

Alex