Practice day nr 2 today. Played nine holes with Soren Kjeldsen and Mike Weir. Was really interesting to see how they played. They are very simliar except for the fact that Kjeldsen turns the ball both ways and Weir hits a constant draw. But they swing pretty similar and manage their way around the course similarily. 

I like the ”all-afternoon-Family Guy-treatment”! Funniest show ever. 

Snow up the top. I love this place. It’s so quit and calm. Make me feel so at ease. Nice.

Over here, the club makers and suppliers of other golf related stuff throw equipment at you. It’s awesome. Got a new mini mini club which should improve your ball striking. I changed balls as well this week to the softer one. It spins more with the shorter shots but goes a little shorter with the driver. Feels good though with the new grooves. 

Gotta sleep! Big day tomorrow. I’ll give you more details around the tournament later on. Really tired now. All the best to you guys!

alex

For once, I’m trying to not stress and to save energy for the tournament. It’s going pretty good actually. Came in to Tucson yesterday and this tournament, the WGC Accenture Match Play, is the coolest tournament EVER! They give us a free room which is unreal. They give us a free car (which apparently they do at every PGA Tour event). It’s all crazy!!! I thought we were super spoiled on the European Tour and we are but here it’s just mad! 

Packing again and leaving Phoenix. I might go back there after this week. It was awesome there. I’m gonna miss that car too. 

On the road down to Tucson. Such a nice landscape in the evening.

Came to the room here in Tucson and turned on the Golf Channel and it’s so weird hearing they talk about the tournament we are about to play…

…even weirder when they talk about you…

Colin spend a lot of time in America when caddying for Goosen. Now he is back and liking it…I hope he likes it with me too:)

The course, Ritz Carlton at Dove Mountain is sooooooo good! Crazy greens and just overall perfect! Played nine holes with Camilo Villegas and he was pretty impressive. Straight hitter and really strategic on the course. I’m so not strategic, I leave that up to Colin. Then I played through Vijah Singh. He was funny to watch. He must have taken 7 hours to play the practice round today. He hit 6 drives on the hole I passed him on. He hit about 30 chips on the previous hole. I guess he wants to get to know the course. It’s great seeing and learning from the best. What they all have in common is that they leave nothing to chance. I’m learning…

Feels like a dream having a car for the week and it’s sweet one too. 

Gym and relax…should be a good night…wow my evenings are eventful…:)

Glad you guys like that shortgame video! What kind of videos do you guys want?

alex

Me and Niklas on the green.

Just came to the hotel here at Dove Mountain for the WGC Accenture. So tired after a few hours of driving. I could be the worst long time driver ever. Anything over an hour and I want to go to sleep…

Hope you enjoy the video!

alex

Headed up north to Grayhawk Golf Club to play.

Pre-round snack:)

Niklas Lemke in action.

I think this is one of the best desert courses I’ve played. It’s narrow off the tee, ondulated and great designed greens and awesome par-3’s. It’s a good test overall. It felt a little different than playing desert golf down in the Middle East where you have that thick rough. Here, the balls run straight into the sand and all the cacti. It makes it maybe even tougher. Maybe not, at least it’s different which I like. 

16th. Coolest par-3 on the course. It’s pretty picturesque. And I didn’t bring the big camera. Looks alright with the small one though. 

Ran out of energy today again. So tired with the jet-lag and the hard practise. The four days of just chilling in Monaco made me a little slack I think. Now, I need to get back in the working mode. One more day here in Phoenix before heading over to Tucson to prepare for the Match Play. 

Sleep well. I know Europe is sleeping already, but to you who is awake!

alex

Got Geoff Ogilvy in the first round on wednesday in the WGC Accenture Match Play. I’m heading out to practice:)

See you!

alex

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