Just watched Ronaldo score some goals for Real Madrid! He is good! It looks like he is getting more humble as well…Had a great pizza in Roquebrun and watched the game with my buddy Henrik! Roquebrun is the coolest little city just outside Monaco up in the hills. It’s really old and there are no cars in the city, or let’s call it a village. Great view over Monaco at night and during the day!

Had a good day on the course. Saw Robert Karlsson is training again after his break. Good that he is back! I hope he starts off where he left! 

Practice was fun although it would be fun to have some buddies to play with. It’s good to practice by yourself sometimes because you get a lot done but when you start speaking to yourself it has gone too far:) Robert is leaving tomorrow for Seve Trophy. If I would have played better earlier I would have travelled with him but it’s nice to train here as well.

There are two courses at Terre Blanche GC. One is long and awesome and the other is short and awesome! Played the short one today and I think there should be a lot more short courses built for the amatuers. How much fun is it to play for a 18 hcp player when only using the woods. They never get to touch the shorter clubs when they play. Why not have 400 meter par 5’s, 260 meter par 4’s and 110 meter par 3’s. The courses can be long and brutal for us pros but not for amatuers who are suppose to only enjoy the game. For us it’s enjoyable with challenges and it’s fun for the crowd to see how we handle the tough courses. Since playing the short course today, I got to practice my wedges, which I need to do.  I played ”worse ball” again and it got me. Thought I played pretty good but when I just for a second lost my focus and concentration, I made a bogey. It’s so easy for instance to hit the first shot good and then mess up on your second shot. But, to always hit two balls and pick the worst one (”worse ball”) will make you better as a player, I can almost guarantee that! Here are some pictures from today.

Just have to show some cool art that they have at Terre Blanche GC. Looks pretty nice I think, specially the body sculpture in the spa.

Falling asleep while writing might mean that I should go to bed…:) Seep well everybody!

Ciao

I like watching some youtube stuff and it’s nice to see how the best do it! So, here are some videos of the guys I think are or was the most impressive in the world! 

Alexander Karelin- toughest guy on the planet probably and he trained unbelievable hard.

Tiger Woods- just incredible. Have idolized him since he came on tour and now it’s hard not to just stand and watch him when we play the same tournaments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz47-PtrAyw

Roger Federer- moves like no other and the best tennis player of all time. Nothing more to say!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DDQwLZJMgI

Ben Hogan- to overcome everything he was put up against is very impressive. The best swing of all times and one of the best of all time.

Göran Kropp- I really want the determination he had! The things he did, people still think are impossible to do.

See you later:)

Got up early and I’m so glad I did! The weather was still weird but it was nice driving to the course in the dark and seeing the mist in the trees when it was getting lighter.

After an hour drive I finally got to the course but it was a little wet! It’s a great course with 36 holes and allt the practice facilities imaginable. With all the due on the green it made it easy to see the lines the balls were taking. Looks like a spider web around the hole.

After the morning practice I did some nice playing exercises which I find hard to motivate myself to do…once again, I like practicing quantity but today I did 18 holes quality with ”worse ball” for 9 holes and a short game deal for 9 holes. Felt like my caddie Colin would have been proud of me…quality, quality, quality:)

The course is situated up in the hills or small mountains straight up from Cannes and the views are stunning!

Hope all is good with you guys!!!

See you!

It was very weird flying in to Nice airport when it was raining! It’s always sunny and such a nice view from the airplane when flying in over the water and landing on a little half island just outside the city. But not today. We could barely see out of the windows because of the low clouds and heavy rain. It felt good though coming down here and I’m looking forward to 9 days of good training!

I was going to go straight to the course but since it took 2 hours to get the rental car and it was raining cats and dogs (slight exaggeration) I went straight to Monaco. And straight to the gym at the Monte Carlo Country Club, host of the Rolex Masters tennis tournament in the spring every year. It’s the first clay tournament for the ATP players. I remember watching Robin Söderling loosing his first match of the tournament there this year. But, since then he hasn’t lost many matches this year!!!

The whole complex of the Monte Carlo Country Club breaths luxury and tradition. The locker room looks very posh and very old. The gym though, was new and fresh and overlooking the water. Therefore the price, 24 Euros for one session…I need to find another gym!

I suck at making plans for my golf training…need to get more structured. Don’t know how to do it! Any suggestions or advices? Tried so many times to plan my days and weeks and years, but everytime I fail to follow them. I get boored of knowing what I’m gonna do the next day! Maybe it’s good to not plan ahead. Although, I want to make sure I practice the right amount and enough on all areas of the game. It’s so much easier to plan for the physical or the mental training.

All I know is that I wake up in the morning and feel excited to go practice and play golf. Maybe that’s all that matters.

Tomorrow it’s gonna be good weather. I just hate practicing in the rain…it’s hard to get good quality practice. 

These are the cars you need in Monaco when you are looking for parking spots:)

Have a good night!

Another tough day in the gym. Stamina in the morning and I was so much more motivated today. When that lactic acid comes I just close my eyes and think of something sweet that I want to happen and it feels a lot easier. The strength training was nice to in the afternoon with some new exercises. Training a lot helps me to eat, sleep and recover better since I know that it will make the sessions easier. Nothing worse to come to a session tired,hungry or dehydrated and not be able to do your best.

Saw some of the re-cap from the US Open tennis final and Federer looked so strong in the beginning but couldn´t take another title this time. Del Potro was too strong! Federer though, has to be almost super human. He doesn´t look as strong as he really is and he moves like a cat and doesn´t even sweat after a match. I have heard how much Robin Söderling trains and I would love to see Federer work out. Speaking of work outs, does anybody have any video of Alexander Karelin (the wrestler) working out. I´ve seen photos of him and he looks like the strongest athlete ever.

Tomorrow starts my golf training down in Monaco. Going to combine it with gym training and my new breathing/focusing CD I got. Need to get better at focusing on the course and not get distracted or loose my confidence during the tournament. This CD will help me, I hope. It feels great to have some new stuff to work on. It´s easy for me to get caught in beating balls and just trying to find something that works for the moment. My training needs to be more structured so I can develop my game at a steady pace. Not bouncing up and down and just looking for short cuts or quick fixes.

See you later and tomorrow I´m gonna get some sweet pictures of Terre Blanche GC. It´s an awesome place up in the mountains above Cannes in France.

Totally done after a hard training day yesterday at the UCSP Gym in Stockholm. The morning session was terrible! Intervals on the bike and then intervals on the rowing machine. I´m the worst at motivating myself for these exercises. I hate the feeling when the lactic acid sips into your muscles. I don´t mind pushing myself on strength exerices but stamina ones are tougher, but, I feel great after these tough sessions. It feels like I´ve done something productive and that I improved on one of my weaknesses. Going to work on the same thing tomorrow so we´ll see if my motivation is better and the results can improve. 

The afternoon session was more to my liking. Bar and other free weight exercises and most of them from 6-10 repetitions. Chin-ups always gets me though…feel like I want to puke after. After the session I tried one of the best things I´ve ever tried! A breathing/focusing exercise which I´m going to start using regurarly and if it´s as good as I think, I will tell you about it later!

Today was golfing day at Bro Hof Slott GC and the course was in great shape! Thought I wasn´t going to be able to swing today beacause I´m so sore from yesterday. But, it sometimes it feels like I get rid of my overswing when I´m sore, can´t wind up as much…I know some guys on tour try to get as sore as possible for the tournament days so they can feel their bodies better and maybe swing a little shorter and more controlled. Other players might feel the opposite. I like feeling like I´ve done something the day before when I play but not sore so I can´t wind up fully.

See you later and enjoy the training:)

It´s been a great training day today! Love coming out to Haninge GK and see the boys and practice with them…Patrik ”Myggan” Nilsson, my former golf coach, is now the head of the athletic side of the club and has a lot to do with the development of the golf course. He has, together with all the other guys involved, done a great job with the course and it´s in the best shape I´ve ever seen it! It´s nice to see improvement like that, especially when you care about the place. Me and my friend Kristoffer ”Kotte” Broberg always have a chipping contest, ”the 21 game”. Usually we have a serious game and it´s very important and the looser feels awful and wants to get revenge right away just to be able to sleep well at night. Today, we had too much to talk about to even count the score. Weird but fun!!! Everybody seems to have a nick-name at our course…I guess it´s like that south of the city:)

This is Kotte who loves chipping!…

Sometimes we practice chipping from the green to get a more crisp hit on the ball and to pick it clean because taking a divot in the green is not very apprecitated:) After practicing of the green, it seems really easy chipping from the fringe.

This is the hut I spent most of my time at Haninge GK the last few years. I love it in there, with the mirrors and the sweet mat to hit from. Now, they have a nice grass tee box outside but I still go in there to hit balls. It´s great when it´s raining outside too!

After lunch it was time to hit the gym…Pierre Johansson is down in Austria with the other golfers he trains. I went to the UCSP gym in the city to do some stuff. Robin Söderling´s coach Ali Ghelem runs the place and they got all the best stuff in there. Have done a lot of testing in there before and they specialize in golf and tennis…so it works out great!

Since I started working out harder my swing feels so much better so I´m just gonna keep doing it! Nothing is better then feeling good over the ball! I want that feeling more often.

See you later!!!

Under par is always good! 2 under par today and moving up, slowly though. Played with the short game genius Rodney Pampling again, and he was as good today. I have so much motivation to practice short game now, never had that before. Always loved the range and judged my game after how good I was hitting it. From now on, focus is going to be on short game and also the gym I think. The stronger and the more flexible I can get the better my swing will be and then it´s just to groove on that short game. 

Peter Hansson is leading going into tomorrow and Henrik Stenson is 2 behind. Good Swedish thing going!!! 

Going to Sweden tomorrow night, haven´t been there in a while. Nice to see the family and the buddies before I go home to Monaco to work on that short game…can´t wait. Playing on a really good golf course outside Monaco, Terre Blanche GC, which has two awesome golf courses and excellent practice areas and a gym as well. So, it´s the perfect place to get better. I can hang out there all day! Robert Karlsson, Soren Hansen and a few French players are playing there as well so maybe we can get some good matches as well. In the end, there is nothing better for your game than competition, I believe.

But, first Stockholm for a few days to work out at the UCSP (Under Construction Sport Performance) gym in the middle of Stockholm and some golf training at Haninge GK and Bro Hof Slott Golf Club.  

This is what I call improvement…going from this…

To this…

See you later and short game, short game, short game:)

Still amazed of how fast some cars are…couldn´t stop thinking about that SLR Roadster from yesterday! Love speed! But to handle speed is another question…that DTM driver Bruno really knew what he was doing! 

Played about the same today as yesterday, level par, and didn´t move anywhere, not up nor down, on the leaderboard. I need to hit it closer to get some good chances for birdies. Maybe tomorrow! The only thing I know for sure doesn´t work on the course is to force good results. They come when you deserve them I think. My coach Pete Cowen always says that you get 30% of what you put into it. And a lot of the time you get 0% but after a while you will get a lot and it all equals out to 30%. Do not know if he´s right but maybe it´s close to the truth…

No practice after the round since I´m still tired from last week and my strategy this afternoon has been to try to get some energy for the weekend. Pierre says I should bike 20 minutes on very low intensity to ”wash out” the waste products in the body that makes you tired. SSP Chowrasia´s caddie, who also is a physio instructor, recommended me to take a seriously cold shower to get back in the game. Tried both and it feels better actually. A good night sleep now to really get energized will get me ready in the head tomorrow. Hopefully my game is up for it as well…we´ll see.

Played with Rodney Pampling today. He is a great player and won pretty much all over the world. He didn´t have his best day from tee to green but he has an amazing short game. His chipping, bunker play, pitching and putting looks so easy! The ball comes out soft and with not much spin and just releases up to the pin, and it always looks like it has a chance to go in. Very controlled and very impressive. 

My parents came down for the weekend. Every time they have come to a tournament this year I have missed the cut…last year they were good luck but not this year. But, since this tournament doesn´t have a cut they were welcomed:) We did a little sight-seeing in Cologne and saw the Dome…huge church. Can´t believe thay built this so long ago without cranes to help them out…

Time for some youtube searching…any good tips???

See you tomorrow!!!

Cloudy day at the course today but perfect weather to play in. Was paired with Trevor Immelman who won the 2008 Masters Tournament and Tongchai Jaidee who has won a few times so it was inspiring players to play with. Trevor is really systematical on the course and is a perfectionist and Tongchai is the opposite. He plays fast on instinct and feel. Im somewhere in between maybe, hard for me to tell but I would guess so. Trevor shot 2 under, I shot 1 under and Tongchai 3 over. In this tournament, we change pairings every day so tomorrow I play with Ricardo Gonzales and Rodney Pampling. Will be a fun day.

My game felt ok today so I´m excited for the next three days. The stronger club face feels like it´s the drill to go to for me at the moment! My drives definetily goes a lot further than when I had my club face open at adress. The course plays really nice here and the greens roll even better and faster than previous days. They are so smooth! 

After the round, we went straight to the Mercedes-Benz test drive circuit to try some cars and to get a ”lift” with a master-class sliding instructor and then with DTM driver Bruno Spengler in a serious fast and powerful car…looks like a space ship:)

Felt so sick after going around with this guy…He was soooo good at driving it was a joke! Thought we were going to crash in every corner but somehow he managed to save the car and our lives. Impressive! 

Talked to some friends down in Australia this morning and they are true golfers…they breathe golf and they have built their own course in the backyard of their house. Rodger Paul and Will Kendall are the builders, architects, greenkeeping staff, players, boardmembers etc of this course…whatch out for these guys in the future!!! The course looks in great shape I would say, not long, but very tight and tricky:) 

I´m gonna make one of these if I ever get a house with a backyard. 

All the best guys and see you soon!