alex noren, golfer on the move

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Go Green!
2010-02-10 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

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Serious talk:)
2010-02-10 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

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Micke Lindberg backflipper
2010-02-09 Updated and improved backflipper. It's goooooood!

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Micke Lindberg...16 years old!

alex

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Travel fun.
2010-02-09 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

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Dubai Sunday.
2010-02-08 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!

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