After tons of travelling and hungrier than ever, this view was magical! Their burgers are the most fresh and they make their own french fries. It’s actually pretty moving stuff when they put a whole potato in ”the french fries cutter machine” and out comes fresh and very good tasting french fries. Never thought you would see that these days. This was my view from my hotel window, now we stay just behind this building so chances are we might stop in for a meal again…

Simple and good. Not for your ”body-good” but for hunger and taste buds.

I was trying to lobby for a upgrade at the car rental and they gave me this. A KIA Amanti. The cheap car maker KIA is trying to do some kind of cheap Rolls-Roys lookalike. It’s got all the leather and buttons on the inside and it drives ok. The only thing it looks a bit weird for a 27 year old to drive so I got a lot of stick from the guy at the car rental check out. ”That’s so you!” he said and cracked up! Great! Anyway, I love it! 

It’s great to practice in the mornings in Phoenix. It’s a little cold this time of the year but I like it when there is due on the ground. 

Our favourite store. Have to open in Europe. A must. You choose from a bunch of flavours, add all kinds of candy or fresh fruit and then you pay for what it weighs. And it was cheap. Ideal place. Maybe visit again. I feel that my nutrition intake is suffering here in America. But when It’s right there in front of you, it’s so hard to resist. I have to go back to the European Tour where the buffets are more healthy…

It’s now 2.45 AM and I’ve slept for three and a half hours. Time to try to get some more in before another full day of practice. 

alex

First day of Phoenix training camp.

alex

Just woke up here in Phoenix, Arizona. The local time is 3.30 AM. Yippi Kaye for jet lag. It’s not often I will stand out on a range waiting for the sun to rise.

Yesterday was a day of serious travel. Left a rainy (later on it would snow) Monaco to get a plane to London to wait for another 3 hours to catch a 10h 30min flight over to Phoenix. I loved the straight flight but just the thought of being stuck on an airplane for that long made me sick even before boarding. Having such low expactations of a flight made it a bit easier though.

After sleeping half of it, watching ”Law Abiding Citizen” and an episode of ”Curb Your Enthusiasm” I was almost not ready to get off the plane. I still hade some fun movies to watch. My body was aching though…After 22 hours of travelling I was finally at the hotel and the last thing I wanted to do was to sleep but when your friends are working out early in the morning the only way is the bed and a book. That will put me to sleep. Reading John McEnroe’s book ”Serious” and loving it. He is so direct and honest. Anyway, will post a bunch of pics and hopefully some videos from here later when I’ve got some electricity (why doesn’t the world come to an agreement using a universal electric outlet???) to my computer.

Got a good question from a player here which I hope to give a good answer to:

Hey Alex, just spent about 45 minutes to figure the name out and here it is already – about 40 times! But of course i will keep my chance of winnng that nice shirt – the correct answer is Mike Holder! 😀 By the way, when you answering questions next time or you playing your next tournament it would be very interesting for me, to get detailled information about how do you prepare for the round on the tournament day. Special breakfast time (for example two hours before your tee time), special food, running in the morning, 50 Balls on the driving range, 20 minutes putting…- what are you doing?? Is there a difference between an early and a late tee time?? It is very interesting for me because i am going to play a lot of tournaments this year and i want to behave more professional in preparing for them! Best wishes from Hamburg, Germany!

I’ve got a standard routine before every round and I prepare the same for an early round as I do for a late one. Let’s say my tee-time is 8.00AM. I wake up at 5.30AM to have a hot shower to wake up and give my body a nice wake-up call. I wish I could do a cold shower but no way!

6.00AM breakfast including a lot of protein and lots of water. A usual one is eggs, bacon, salmon, fruit, maybe a little bit of bread and water.

6.30AM flexibility and stretching exercises either alone or with Pierre (my physio) if he is there. I have exactly the same routine every time with him. We do three flexibility exercises to get warm and get the body working and then around 7 stretches. If I feel I need to, we add some core stability exercises to feel more ”on” before hitting balls.

At 7.00AM I start with 15 min putting just getting the feel for the greens and by the 15 minutes is up I should be in tournament putting mode having done my putting routine on the last few putts. Then 10 min of chipping and bunker to get the feel for the shorter shots. To finish off the warm-up I hit balls on the range until it’s time to tee off. I usually work on different shots needed for that specific course and round and to get fully warmed up and ready to play.

The flexibility and stretching I did first is kicking in during my range warm up. I always feel a little weak-legged (little tired) during my putting warm-up but it’s perfect by the time I get to the first tee. I think it’s important to peak your form during the warm-up routine. When I’m having breakfast, I usually feel relaxed and really slow in my body. I wouldn’t want to feel like that on the first tee. Also, I wouldn’t want to feel too excited at breakfast because I would be tired when I got the the first tee.

The only difference when preparing for a late tee-time is that I eat one more time before playing. All guys have different routines and the only important thing is that you feel ready when you step on the first tee. I know some guys that warm up for over 2 hours and then we have Colin Montgomerie who rarely hits balls before playing. The one thing that made a big difference to me was to finish my warm-up with hitting balls and not putt last. It feels easier to smash a drive now of the first tee when walking straight from the range…

alex

Just got some more Hugo Boss Green stuff. Still waiting for the new spring collection which looks great! Trying to decide on sizes. I like their small size but Henrik Stenson is giving me too much crap wearing small:) I rather wear small and keep hearing his nag than wearing clothes being too big. I like bigger pants but not shirts! Anyway. Met the Hugo Boss Green designer and he was spot on cool! Looked exactly like he knew what he was doing and the spring stuff as I said looks great to me. What do you guys think? Check here. That’s just some of it. There are

loads more. 

You guys remember that contest we were talking about having a chance to win the ”2010 Royal Trophy shirt” signed by the whole European team? I just figured out the contest will be to guess who my Head Coach was at Oklahoma State University during my four years there (2001-2005). We will randomly pick the winner and send you the shirt. Just post the name in the comments box below and please write down your email adress as well so we can contact you. The final date for entry is the 15th of Feb.

This is the prize.

Hope you guys like it and send in the answer!

Last night in Monaco!!! Going to Phoenix tomorrow to visit some friends and practice before the big tournament next week! WGC Accenture Match play!!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe it! Soooo Happy! I might not be so happy when I see the draw but hopefully I will have a lot of fun! There are 64 qualified players straight of the world rankings and the 1st ranked meets the 64th and so on in the first round! This is probably the biggest thing I’ve played in after The Open and I can’t wait to get to America. America to me is GOLF!

Some pics from a pretty calm Monaco…

Larvotto Beach is usually so crowded you can’t get a spot. Now, it’s all yours…if you like 12 degrees.

Somebody is on the ball and making this place nicer to be at!!! Thanks!

Hope you guys are all good and see you in Phoenix!

alex  

I’ve always had the idea of when you want to improve in something, you look at how the best do it and you try to do it as good as them. So, in golf, the best players are on the European- or the US PGA Tour. I’ve gone through the whole Swedish golf elite junior program. I started in the Stockholm Golf District Team and then went onto the Swedish National Team and I can honestly say that we have never watched any European Tour nor US PGA Tour tournaments in my 12 years on those teams. We did a lot of other really good things and I’m really happy for everything they did for us and I don’t think I would be at the level I am now without they help I got from them, but we never watched any of the top players in the world in action. Most of our coaches had played on high level tours but they had at the time they were coaching us put their clubs away. I think all of us players  had the aspiration to become world class players but, let’s face it, we had no idea what a ”world class player” looked like. We watched a lot of them on TV and that helped but it’s totally different seeing them live in action. As I said, we got great training on the National Team but I think we missed out on the most important thing. Watching the guys on TV will make us believe the pros hole every putt they look at and hit it close all the time, because on TV they only show the top guys that particular week. I can now, with three years of playing on the European Tour tell you guys that I wish I would have known earlier how the pros get the ball around the course as well as they do. 

We were taught at an early age to master all ball flights. Fade, draw, straight, high and low. That is good, but to make it out on tour you have to be able to repeatedly hit the same shot over and over.  That could be a fade for someone, a straight or a draw for someone else. Just look at Tom Watson. He is a legend and he is 60 years old and can still compete with the world’s top players. He consistantly hits the same shot, a little draw. We were always taught to hit a draw into a left flag, a fade into a right flag and so on. This made me very confused becasue I ended up being able to hit all shapes but I didn’t whcih shot came at which time. Watson hits the same shot to every flag. If he doesn’t want to go for a right pin he can just hit it to the middle of the green and have a go at a birdie. He will make a par at worst. If you hit the middle of each green, during a whole tournament I doubt you will finish outside the top-5. Make it easy for yourself. It has taken me these three years to really understand how to make it easy for myself out there. Now, I have to train my brain in action to think this way too. 

If I hit fourteen drives in one round, three years ago I would have tried to hit all different shapes with those drives to try to bend them in the way fairway bended or to prevent the wind to drift the ball too much. Now, I try to hit 14 equal shots. Straight. My feeling is fade, but a fade for me is pretty much straight. Tom Watson probably hits 14 draws. He can trust his draw very well so he will just aim a little more right if the wind is off the right. If he all of a sudden tries to hit a fance fade into the wind, it will be so much harder. Jack Nicklaus was the same way, but he hit a fade all the time. 

I’m writing this to you young guys out there in hope you understand the importance of watching the top players play and also the importance of making the game simple. I’m trying to make it simple at age 27. Wish I had started a little earlier:)

Wow, this was serious…let’s look at this car I saw here in Monaco. Electrically driven. 290 horses and 0-100 km/h in 3.7 sec. Charge it for 4 hours and then drive for 390 km. Good deal. 

It’s so small inside. I could barely get in and out and I’m not exactly a big guy.

alex

Updated and improved backflipper. It’s goooooood!

Micke Lindberg…16 years old!

alex

Flying out from Dubai at 2.40 AM has to be the best time. Can’t remember taking off nor landing. The best flight! I hate being awake in airplanes. Time seems to go by as slow as it does running on a tredmill. Minutes seems like hours. Short stop in Vienna and then the best pick up in Nice ever. Sir Henrik Davidsson came to pick me and Robert Karlsson up! What a nice guy:) 

Snow and sunshine in Vienna. 4 hours delay seems like nothing when you get free internet and free food. Star Alliances lounges are good. It’s hard not to get a gold card which gets you access to the lounge when you fly around the world liek we do. You don’t have to fly business. I rarely do. Sometimes when the flight is really long and you have to play the same day as you land it’s an advantage. Too much money otherwise. Just for a bigger seat??? 

Felt weird coming out of the airplane having spent 4 weeks in sunshine and heat to feel the cold air hitting you in Vienna. The sun came out too and it looks sweater on the picture too. 

Monaco is not hot either this time of the year. It feels like the city is dead. It’s usually a lot of people walking around but not this time of the year. A lot of road work and as you can see in this pic, ”marina work” as well.

It’s kind of nice having nothing to do though. I have never been this relaxed. Work out is the only thing all day that can count as productive. 

Maybe I should clean up a bit. Packing and unpacking seems like half my life. Heading out to America soon so there is no need to clean up until I will mess it up packing again. 

Life on tour is really nice and I wouldn’t change it for anything, but sometimes it would be nice to spend more time than a week at one place and maybe have time for other things than training. I probably have time for that when I get older.

Loading up a video of my friend from home who did that sick backflipper I showed you a while ago on the blog. He has improved it and the video is coming up really soon, as soon as ”Vimeo” is done loading it up.  

Also, for those who understand Swedish (although nowadays you can just google translate the Swedish into any language you want) there are two friends of mine blogging for the Swedish tour ”Nordea Masters Tour” on it’s website and they are doing it great. Fun and interesting reading. Check it out here. 

Have to clean up a little of this mess so I can actually move around and to see the floor.

alex

Heading over to Monaco for a few days before going to America. Nice with some rest. It’s been a busy 4 week stretch in the Middle East. Learnt a lot and played some good golf too. Now, the key is to keep a good attitude and keep training…

Dubai sunday in pictures…

Erik hooked up.

Coming out of the thick grass by the 8th green.

Big screen TV and chill down in the club house. Very busy the during the whole week and it gets really crazy after the tournament. 

Last wedge shot into the 18th tricky pin. The approach shot is so deceiving on the last because you can’t feel the wind becasue the green is sheltered by the huge buildings they put up for the tournament.

Alvaro Quiros. Great player. Longest player ever to play on a tour?!

Tom Watson finished 8th. Incredible. 68 the last day. Unbelievable.

Nothing worse than leaving a put short on the last hole.

Still happy. It was a good week and I’m really excited to go America, especially for the WGC Match play in a week and a half.

It’s funny how quite a place can feel after a tournament. It’s been buzzing all week and now it’s just dead.

See you in Monaco!

4,5 hours lay-over at Vienna Airport on my way to Monaco. Thought I would answer some of your questions. Thanks for all of them!

————————————————————————————————————————-

Q.: Great round Alex! …..looks like a tough course so good to see you are enjoying the challenge.  A few questions: 

Re: Bunker practice drill – You want to feel more on your toes for all shots or just bunker shots?

Re: One handed shots – Can you tell us what they help you with technique and/or feel wise?

Re: Mr Cowan – Looks like his advice this week was helpful – what did he work on with you?

A: I like hitting from the bunker when the balls is lower than my feet. It helps me get a little steeper swing plane. I need that. Regarding the one-handed shots, it gets you to feel and understand what each hand should do in the swing and if you can get consistently good strikes with each hand it’s easy to hit solid shots when you put them both together on the club afterwards. Me and Pete Cowen usually works on different shots on the range that are needed that specific week. We also do a lot of drills to improve the technique during the week. I’ve worked with him for so long now and I know all the drills. We still need to go over them and polish it all up.

Q. what about the new grooves? what does the rest of the guys say?

A. I like the fact that we get less spin but I don’t like how the tours have controlled it. The rules are so vague. For example, all my irons from last year were legal except for the 9-iron and my lob wedge. I could play with all the other ones but it would be a hassle trying out a new 9-iron and then get tested all the times during the year because some of the other clubs were on the border line for being legal. Same thing with the old wedge Phil Mickelson used which had square grooves but was legal. The governing bodies has to make it clearer for us players. A lot of players are very upset since some players can use old clubs and so on. I don’t know the best way to control and govern this but I know that this is not the best way for sure.   

Q. Hello Alex! Do you believe in vision 54? Will you be the one who brings home the first major trophy to Sweden?

A. Off course it’s possible to shoot 54! You can shoot 36 if you are good enough:) I hope to have a chance to bring one home sometime soon. 

Q. Alex, just found this video of you on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p738s3sr2NM

Can you explain the purpose of the drill (unless it’s a magic secret, then you can just email me haha)

A. I like that drill since it helps you to get high and you turn enough in the backswing. It also gives you a good position to hit the ball from on the way down since you are pretty high. 

Q. One question though: When you say the tournament is «run very professionally», what exactly do you mean by that? To me the tournaments all look a bit the same. (Different trophys though.) Is it how they treat you, is it the perks, is it the food, is it the cars?

A. I like tournaments where they set the course up tough, when the tournament is focused on the game and not everything around it. Sometimes, tournaments try to focus everything on the sponsors so they can have as much fun as possible in the beer tents. I think the sponsors like it better watching Watson and other great players playing a great set-up golf course than drinking beer. Maybe it’s just me thinking that way. The course in Dubai was set-up so tough. The rough was very high, pretty firm greens and add a lot of wind on top of that. It’s one of the best courses we play all year. I always learn so much by playing this tournament and that’s how I grade the tournament. If I don’t learn anything, the course is not set up well at all, probably too easy. This week, I really sharpened up my short game due to the tough conditions around the greens but also since I missed so many greens so I got a lot of practice:)

Q. Do you know a lot about equipment or do you leave it all up to the equipment guys?

A. I know enough I would say. I’m not a freak about it. I know how I want the ball to behave and try to arrange my clubs in a way that will produce tha ball flights I want. 

Q. Your thoughts around Tom Watson please?

A. He is amazing. That’s all I have to say. That course was set-up so tough but he is that good I guess. He beat the crap out of me:)

Q. lol at your drive from fairway at 18th during the 2nd round of the Dubai tournament, frustrated …eh? But great shot!

A. Haha. I hit a lot of drives from the fairways in practice so I know pretty much how it will behave. I love hitting it to get some extra roll when it lands but in this case I tried to slice it up into the right-to-left wind and to carry the water hazard in front. I just cleared the water. I heard the TV-commentators thought I was totally nuts choosing that shoot.

Q.  I was wondering what kind of economical agreement you players have with your caddies ? If you don’t want to tell us yours specifically it would be nice if you could tell us what it normally looks like. Is it a percentage of what you win or is it a regular salary no matter results but with a bonus if the player do well in the tournament.

A. The usual caddie fee is around 1000 Euros a week as a fixed fee. Than add 5% of the prize money to a made cut, 7,5% for a top-10 and 10% for a win. This is pretty much the average deal. It can very a lot though from player to player. 

Q. i noticed that u are wearing Boss now…have u got a got a new sponsor?

A. Yeah, started this year. Feels good!

A lot of good shots today. I’m focusing on them now:) My new plan. No more negatives. Only happy things! Started great both nines.

Had a good session on the range afterwards as well. Feeling a lot better now than I was feeling last night. One more round to go. I’m gonna have fun. 

An easy gym session. I hate it when Pierre tells me to go easy and save some energy for the sunday round. Edfors is the same. We like challenges. But, I guess Pierre knows what he is doing so we listen to him. Sometimes. It’s great when Pierre is away. We can go how hard we want to:)

Pierre is getting a lot stronger. I don’t like it.

My roomate this week and a caddie on the tour, Erik. 

Pic from today’s play. 

Good night!!!

alex