alex noren, golfer on the move

9
Went east
2011-02-14
Went to Venice. Same shitty weather but wholy cow (!), what a place. The holy grail for photographers. Thinking about taking a photography online-class before I head out. I want to take those old style scrappy pictures of people. Any tips on how to do it? Had a look at Johan Rheborg's (Sweden's best comedian) photography blog site and got inspired.

Driving there wasn't pretty...

It got better once we got there...

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5
Ratings again
2011-02-14
Rate the last two days:

Found some new friends to eat dinner with in Monaco (5). Drove to Milano (1). Got to Milano where the first buildings looked like they were abandoned war-time buildings (1). I love Milano. The centre is awesome. Cool city. Got completely fooled when eating in the big Gallery next to Duomo (1). Duomo itself gets (5). Sat down to eat when we finally found a ok looking restaurant where they used foods from this century. Got a meny (3). Got the food (-10). The pasta looked like it was kids food. One dish was impossible to eat. Literally impossible. The spaghetti had grown together into treetrunks (1). Anyway. We got a discount after complaining. I used to never complain (5). Now I complain if I think its' worth it (1). Even with the discount the dinner was so expensive. Aweful pasta: 13 Euros, water 7 Euros (!), beer 13 Euros (!!!!!), then they added some sort of cover charge of 10 Euros. Anyway. Everything was kind of hilarious and it made the night even more fun.

Milano gets overall a 4. Cool city but a little weird. Heading to another city today. Ciao.

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45
Rating my day
2011-02-12
I've been reading Alex and Calle Shulmans blogs and they rate everything they've been up too. I'm gonna do the same. On a scale 1-5 where 5 is great.

Fell asleep on the couch (5). Spent yesterday hanging out with myself and not speaking a word (1). Spending today the same way (1). Rented a small convertible car (5). With no space for golf clubs or anything else for that matter (1). I'm smart (NOT). Have to give it back soon because if I happen to buy a Mars bar and a water it will not fit in the car (1). Went to check out Monte-Carlo Golf Club's greens if they are good (3). Spend easily 5 hours on the computer doing nothing (1). Feeling like a slob (2). Cleaned my apartment (5). Found a lot of old golf related stuff (5). Do you think I should have a garage sale where the money goes to some kind of junior golf deal? Or something else? That would be (5).

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24
Status update
2011-02-11
As some of you know, I had a wrist injury back in 2009 for a few months and after two bad lies on the 12th hole yesterday I felt the same kind of pain again and had to withdraw from the tournament. The wrist has been good for a long time and it's not as bad as it was in 2009 but I didn't want to gamble and play today if I got some more bad lies and I had a very long way up to earning some points.

My trainer has done a lot of work on the wrist and it hasn't affected my game at all lately. I'm not blaming my bad play yesterday on the wrist but I need a little rest and then get back into training.

The plan of playing 5 weeks in a row wasn't as smart as I thought. It was great coming into the very big tournament in Abu Dhabi in good form after playing good in Johannesburg but I probably should have taken a week off in Doha and reloaded so I could've been fresh this week in Dubai. Even though golf is not as physical as many other sports it still wears on you and especially mentally. For me it's really important to stay motivated and inspired and it didn't feel the same teeing up in Doha as it did in Abu Dhabi. That's for sure. The excitement to play wasn't there and I think that was the reason for not scoring as good.

My season has started pretty good though with finishes of: 13-31-8-MC-WD. 3 good finishes and 2 not so good:)

I have some time to rest and get back into form now. Really looking forward to practice and feel 'on' again. I love competing but it's not as fun if you don't feel excited and full of energy and wanting to win.

My main focus over the winter was to improve my short game. I'm really excited to see the improvement in that area and it really helped me in these events. Putting has been the best so far which was my worst part of my game last season.

My goal now is to become more consistent in my long game. Even though I've never been high up in fairways hits on tour, I've felt comfortable of the tee and never been in much trouble. These 5 weeks, I didn't feel as comfortable and made a lot more double-bogeys than usually. The short game was there though to make more birdies but it really hurt me in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. I should have finished higher there.

I hit a lot of balls during the last two weeks and that didn't help in conserving energy and feeling fresh and also that could be the main factor my wrist is hurting a bit. I probably should've just trusted my swing and played like the first few weeks. But, I didn't and I have now learned from it. (I hope...)

Thanks for all the well wishes during these tournaments. I'm very thankful guys!!! You are great!

Hope you guys are well and I'll get back soon with better and more fun news. I kind of like feeling shitty sometimes. Then it feels even better when you feel good.

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11
Portraits with a touch of Apple.
2011-02-08
Another great day in Dubai. Having dinner with a tennis champ and a table tennis champ. They are gonna hate me after asking them millions of questions. :) They'll get over it.

Took some photos.

Pontus Eliasson relaxing.

Erik Frost.

Pontus and me.

Mikko Ilonen's caddie Reggie in the gym.

Sleep well and keep the loft as Pete Cowen would have said...:)

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