Tried to catch up on some sleep and succeded for the first night in a while…first I was too nervous to sleep before the last round, then I was too happy to sleep after the tournament…but now I´m back to preparing for this week so trying to postpone the feelings from last week until next week when I am off and have time to celebrate.

Had a good practice day. Short but with quality as my caddie would say. I have a tendency to practice quantity more than quality and Colin is trying to change that. I listen to him and try really hard but it will take a while to always do it during practice. I love hitting a lot of balls and chips and puts without much thought. It feels like meditation for me…clears my head from everything else. But, it is not the most productive training. But, I can do it at home when he isn´t watching:) 

Started with an hour on the putting green with a few exercises. One is trying to hole as many 13 footers you can out of 20 putts from about the same place. You start by estimating how many you will hole and then you see if you make as many or more. Hopefully you will estimate higher and make more putts as you train more and more. I did that exercise 6 times today from 6 different angels from the hole. The second exercise is to putt 20 3-footers in a row in a circle around the hole and see how many you make. This exercise helpes me realise I can hole out almost all of them all the time and it makes me hit longer putts more agressively. The last exercise is to just hit long putts to different holes to get the pace of the green and to instinctively get the lines without much reading. Last, a few long putts from the fringe to get the feeling from there as well.

Then me and my swing coach Pete Cowen had a session in the bunker, around the chipping green and on the range. More of a check-up than a lesson. I usually go 2-3 days a few times a year over to England to see him at his range to do most of the technique training. At tournaments, we mostly check if everything is ok and then practice the different shots required for the course that week. Still working on getting the club head more shut at adress which makes it stronger and a fraction shorter in the backswing which makes it easier to control in the downswing. I´m more aware of where the club face is. 

A little gym session to finish off the day was nice. Now it´s Sweden-Malta on TV and then in the middle of the night Söderling plays Federer in the US Open. This summer I have been glued to all Söderling´s matches and been so hooked on tennis. Never met the guy but I´m so nervous when I watch him on TV it feels like it´s my brother playing. I love watching tennis but I suck at playing. It is such a nice TV sport. I think Söderling has a good chance to beat Federer tonight…we´ll see what happens. 

See you later!

Training day for everybody out at Lärchenhof Golf Club. It’s a Jack Nicklaus design course with very fast greens, some water and winding fairways. The course plays quit long and the 8th hole is the longest par 3 on tour. Last year Robert Karlsson won here. It´s a shame he can´t play this year but he will be back soon. We miss him out here!

Met up with Colin and did a warm-up session before playing the back nine with Thomas Aiken and Louis Oosthuizen. They are really good and easy going guys and we had a good time…have to admit I was very tired though. I´m not used to winning…it took a lot out of me!

Here is Aiken on the 16th tee…a car if you make it Thomas:)

A little realx time before a gym session…we stay at a pretty good hotel, but they have a gym that´s smaller then a normal bath room…if there are more than 3 people in there at the same time it feels crowded. No good equipment and no ”Vein Man” here this week. Tried to get a good session in anyway and ended on the bike to ”wash out the waste products in the body” like Pierre would say. I feel fresher already!:) Thanks Pierre!

Don´t try mixing the protein powder with sparkling water…thought it would be ok but I ended up cleaning half the bath room:) 

Saw the coolest guy I´ve ever seen performing. His nickname is James Afro. Never seen anybody that happy to be on stage, excited to perform and confident in his ability!!! Here is the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvBHzaZZO5o

Early bed time and some old Entourage episode. So mad that it was some kind of holiday in America so we have to wait another week to see a new episode…not fair:)

See you tomorrow!!!

Couldn´t sleep very well last night! Was on such a high and everything felt so unreal! Always dreamt of winning on the European tour but never actually thought I could do it down the stretch and I was so happy to do it! 

Woke up before the alarm to see if it all was just a good dream but it wasn´t:) The day continued well with a little bit of golf at the Pro-Am event ”Velvet-Green” in Megéve, France. The most beautiful little alp village. 2000 people are living there all year round but then the place gets invaded by many many thousands of people during the winter and some weeks in the summer. I played with a French downhill skier that was racing at the same time as Ingemar Stenmark. He said Ingemar was ”the man”!!! The village of Megéve sits in a little bowl and the mountains are all around it. Awesome! 

The ski resort and the golf course share ”club house”:)

On the way back to Geneva Airport we saw Mont Blanc straight ahead. Looked cool! 

The people living in these alp villages are absolutely crazy with all the stuff they are doing! Climbing, skiing, downhill biking, road biking, running, paragliding etc. One of the guys I played with today just ran a 107 kilometer race from Chamonix up through the mountains and finished in another village. It took him 22 hours. Absolutely crazy but very impressive! And it wasn´t just him being that crazy, they were 1000 runners in the race and it sounded like they all finished!!! That´s dedication for real!

On thursday starts the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Cologne, Germany played on a great course with super good greens. Bernhard Langer is the host player for the event and it´s looking like its going to be a great week!

See you later!

Well…today was the most fun I´ve ever had on a golf course. Was leading by 2 shots going in to the last round here in Switzerland and started with birdie-birdie so things were looking very good. Kept going pretty strong through the front nine but Bradley Dredge wanted to take over the lead. He wedged it in from 50 meters on 9, then birdie 10 and chipped in for birdie on 11. So, I went from leading by 4 shots to being tied with Dredge after that 11th hole. Still tied after 13. Then I birdied 14 and eagled 15 and was up by 2. Things were looking great again and finished 2 shots ahead in the end. I was very nervous but not as nervous as I thought I would be…weird that! Thought I was going to shake like crazy…usually get a little nervous for a lot of things but I guess I felt I was playing well…don´t really know. All I can say is that I´ve never been this happy before!

Always wondered how it is inside that press room and I found out today. It´s nice after a win to sit there and answer questions…everything felt so easy…

Then it was time for some winding road driving up to a little ski village called Megéve close to Chamonix. Peak Performance is the clothing sponsor for the Pro-Am they have here tomorrow and I wanted to join up and see this place. It´s a really cool place and the Pro-Am is supposed to be a good one with a lot of good French professionals.

Tomorrow afternoon though, me and my agent Johan Elliot are heading to Cologne for the Mercedes-Benz Championship. I wasn´t in that tournament before this week started but the win got me in…feels awesome!

Gotta take some cool pictures of this place tomorrow. We drove past Mont Blanc on the way here and it looked unreal with all the steep mountain tops.

See you tomorrow and sleep well…I will. 

Today I probably played the best I´ve ever played! Felt so good and especially the putting. Love when they roll in:) Started off a little nervous, don´t know why, but got it together and started making birdies and was 5 under through 10. Then I played a little anxious the next four but finished off with 4 under last 4. Shot 63 (-8) and I was so happy after the round! 

Leading by 2 for tomorrow´s last round. Don´t know what to expect tomorrow really. Haven´t been in this situation a lot before. Once, two years ago, in Portugal but didn´t win then. This time maybe! I hope so…

We´ll see what Pierre has to offer in the weight room tonight…

See you later!

Last night was the Omega Player´s Party! Always the best food ever! Everybody goes over there to either eat, party or just hang out after the golf. I was first there, so hungry! Here is the desert table, unreal!!!

Woke up early as the curtains are not the best in my room! But, I was happy since it was sunny outside and some snow had fallen on the mountains. Feels like it´s going to be fun weekend with sun on sunday as well!

We´ll see how the course plays today as it was raining pretty heavy in the afternoon and made it a lot tougher for the players still on the course, and then it still rained during the night. Soft conditions here makes it easier. Sometimes you get lucky with the draw and sometimes you don´t. I remember last year at the British Open. I was out late on thursday and was watching the early guys on tv and they got the worst weather I think I have ever seen! Then, when we were playing, it was  a lot calmer winds with some sunshine. Felt so lucky! But, some other weeks you feel unlucky. It evens out over time I guess!

Now it´s time for a warm up session with the ”vein man”, then some golf warm up to get into the tournament mode. Love the feeling of going from eating breakfast and not thinking about golf at all, to warming up and don´t think of anything except golf.

See you and have good day!

Golf is a weird game! Yesterday everything felt so easy! Best I´ve felt all year! Today, I had that feeling for half the round and the total opposite feeling for the other half. Had to fight all way around and I was pleased to finally get to one under for 70. Under par is always good, no matter what course. This course gives us a lot of opportunities for birdies but it also gives us a lot of challenging shots. The greens are like upside-down pots and the ball easily rolls of if you don´t hit the right spots.

It was good scoring weather this morning, not a breath of wind and wet ground so the ball stopped fast. It was supposed  to be rain all day but we got lucky. I hate rain! I enjoy wind but rain just makes it so booring! 

No it´s time for some putting to get the feeling I had yesterday. Just roll them in. Today it felt like there was no chance for the ball to even sniff the cup…Colin probably has come up with some good putting exercises for me now after lunch. Got to get better…

Then it´s gym time again. Didn´t do it yesterday and actually missed it. Get such a nice feeling just after the gym! A sense of acomplishment and a totally sore body is a good mix! And when you have that shake afterwards it really feels like it helps you to get stronger…

Saw a nice car yesterday…a souped up GM. Nice with the old style model with new black rims.

See you later!!!

A little colder this morning and the weather forecast is not great! But it feels like its changing all the time here in the mountains so maybe some good weather in between the bad! Let´s hope at least! 

Felt nice yesterday and holed some nice long putts which feels sooooo good! 6 under gets me in tied 3rd and I´m very happy with that! So now, it´s just to get out there and focus again! 

Shared a courtesy car back from the course yesterday with a player from the Phillipines. He was so happy to be up here in the alps because of the clean air. It really is nice and fresh, specially today when its so cold:)

A little tired of bacon and eggs now, I think it´s my 18th day in a row now…

See you!

Just chilling in the lounge with the other players that have late tee-times today. Everybody brings their computer and just trying to find new anything interesting on the internet to kill some time!

There is a junior tournament that´s held each year at my home club in Sweden, Haninge GK, and since I´ve played there my whole life they named it Alex Noren Junior Open which was very nice of them. I´ve always loved that club and that was my kindergarden when I was little and I still love coming out there to practice with my old friends and coaches. The tournament is included in a series of tournaments for the junior girls and boys. This coming year I would like to add something to the tournament and I have a few thoughts on how to do it. There are many things you can do such as improving the course quality, have better prices, have more people helping out etc. Also, I think it could be a good thing to make the tournament into a little ”mini-golf camp”. Maybe have small training sessions before the tournament or have a mental- or pysical coach to come in and speak for the players and give a few tips.

If you guys have any ideas on how to improve the tournament I would love to hear them. I think there are a lot of things you can do for the juniors to help them get better and be better prepared for the future. 

See you!

Woke up early to walk down to the course. We stay only 15 min away. 4 min if you catch a ride. Looked like Lord of the Rings outside the hotel…was as cold as it looked.

Early Pro-Am tee time and it was a nice round, little slow but Pro-Ams are not known to be fast. Nice to see the course again since this is a tricky one…the more you play it the better it is I believe. Yesterday was all about chipping around plenty of balls and getting to know all possible shots on the course. Today is all about getting into tournament and scoring mode. That´s why I like playing on wednesdays, because you get to play the day before the tournament starts and get to see more what the course will play like. Some courses can change a lot from tuesday to thursday, especially links courses that can dry up a lot or get softer if there is a lot of rain coming on tuesday night or wednesday.

You know you are when in the alps when the caddie rather looks like he wants to go skiing!

Sitting in the player´s lounge right now preparing for the gym session with ”Pierre the vein man”. Just stuffing myself with protein food and drinking a lot of water. One of my goals in the gym is to be able to do 20 chin-ups. I´m at 14 now. Come on:) 

Some pics from the Pro-Am…

These camera men are following my caddie Colin Byrne and they are making a documentary about him and his life on tour. It´s good when my caddie is a lot more famous than I am…:) Gotta change that! Come on:)

Little bit of chipping before the gym to get the right feel for tomorrow…love chipping with my lob wedge…I have to change it out all the time cause I wear the grooves out.

Bye…