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ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 20, 2011Alexander NorenABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES RODDY WILLIAMS: Alex, thanks very much for joining us and terrific start to the week and to the year for you. Tell us about your day today. ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, it was such a nice start, you know, early in the morning, no wind, perfect conditions, and the greens were the best I've ever seen them. And last week, my putting was awful as I practised a lot now, and all of a sudden it felt great and holed pretty much everything I looked at on the front nine. And then the back nine, I played pretty well, but you know, when you start thinking, it's hard to keep holing them. RODDY WILLIAMS: I was just telling you Princess Victoria is here from Sweden, nice to see royalty out there while you're on top of the leaderboard. Did you see her. ALEXANDER NOREN: No, I didn't see her. Q. You're kind of a technical guy, aren't you, with your swing and all; you felt you were playing really well a while back. Did you get lost in technique? ALEXANDER NOREN: You know, I'm always looking for the kind of shot I want to hit and if I don't feel like I have the shot, I'm trying to get into the feeling, whether it's a draw or a fade. But I mean, it felt better on the greens than it did on the shots. I didn't hit that many fairways. Q. But in a general sense, maybe a year ago or 18 months? ALEXANDER NOREN: I like technique. I always try to improve. Q. But do you feel you got lost in a bit of all that or do you feel it's time well spent? ALEXANDER NOREN: Last year you mean? Yeah, I try to find a coach that really worked, but it always comes back to what Pete taught me, Pete Cowen. But I'm always looking for something, and if it doesn't work, you try and look for something else. Golf, it's such a complex game. And I've always been interested, but now it feels like I've understood that I'm not 18 anymore and the golf, as I told the other guy, you don't have to hit every shot straight. You've got to be the right distance. You've got to chip well, putt well, wedge well, drive well. Work more on what actually happens on the golf course than what happens on the driving range. Q. What was the problem with the putting? Because a lot of guys struggled in South Africa with the greens. Was it stroke or feel or pace? ALEXANDER NOREN: The greens were nice I thought, but it's just I guess the putting green was new, and then we played two courses. One course was slower than the other. So I guess it just -- and when the practise green is new, it's not as fun and interesting to putt there. I guess here, it's exactly the same as on the course and the greens are great and you get a different attitude I guess. So it wasn't just me who struggled? (Smiling) That's good. Q. Who is your role model? Who is your inspiration? ALEXANDER NOREN: I've always been -- it's always been Tiger since I was 15 or something. I like Ben Hogan's swing and I have a lot of role models, anybody who works hard. Q. Similar question, we saw you in the media centre when you won in Switzerland, wondering why we haven't seen you back since? ALEXANDER NOREN: In Switzerland, I had a good week, and I had a lot of good weeks right after that. And I finished the season well. But then you know, you've got to live as a golf player, you've got to live with your game every day of the year, and if it's not the way you want it, you try to fix it. And my way of trying to fix it last year, I mean, every decision I took, I thought it was the best for me at the time. And then you learn a lot from it and for now, it feels like I had a good tournament just before Christmas, okay last week, and got better throughout the fall and it just -- you know, I have to learn more about my own game and it's like, yeah, I learn from I think a lot of the best players learn from Westwood, to see what he does, but not just look at Tiger on YouTube or whatever. Their swing, it's different. I know Kaymer well, and you can learn a lot from him. Q. You're one of many players who worked with Pete Cowen. Can you explain to us why he's so good? ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, well, I think he's been out so long and he's understood that every player feels -- if you say one thing to ten players, they feel it in ten different ways. So he has so many different ways of saying the same thing. So a lot of players can adapt to what he says and understand what he says. And then I would say he's a golfaholic. He loves golf. If he's not here, he's home on his range and he works on his game and he works on his game to understand what he can teach, try new shots, new things. So he doesn't just try to put everybody in the same folder and do this, do this. Instead, like I said, try to work on your whole game. Q. Get your head out of the way, Bernie. (Laughter). Sometimes people who know as much about golf and the swing as Pete does have difficulty in explaining it because their level of understanding is so much greater. He gets it across to you in a way in which you can understand. ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, if I don't understand, he puts it in a different way. So I think it's with all of the best coaches, they understand that when I'm out there on the course, it's different than being on the driving range. You have to feel comfortable. Q. It seems that you're a bit of a golfaholic yourself. What other interests do you have outside the game that it actually gives you a chance to relax and forget golf for a while? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, you know, I was a lot more a golfaholic than I am now. I'm really into, I've gotten into photography, so I'm bugging all of the photographers out here with their gear and trying to get the same gear, but it's pretty heavy to travel with. I like that and I like working out, running, but that becomes like gymaholic or a runaholic. So I'm a bit of a "holic." Whatever I do, I do it too much. So I have a lot of different things, trying to get good at all of them. (Laughter). Q. What do you like taking pictures of? ALEXANDER NOREN: I don't know, just, I take a lot of pictures of everything, but I've always liked pictures. I like how they are done. I like how movies are done, not what's actually in them but just more the technique of taking pictures. Q. Landscapes are you talking about or people? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, everything, people, like a lot of depth in the picture, all that, more than the actual part. Technique again (laughing). RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks very much. Well played. End of FastScripts |
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