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