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ISPS HANDA WALES OPENMay 30, 2012Alexander NorenNEWPORT, WALES SARAH GWYNN: Alex, thanks very much for joining us today. Congratulations on Monday, qualifying for the U.S. Open. That must add excitement to an already exciting week, coming back to defend your title here. ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, it was pretty much exactly the same how it happened last year. I was so pleased to get into the U.S. Open, so I just, you know, took this week as I was on a high, and then winning here was fantastic and just went on from there. SARAH GWYNN:  Same again this week? ALEXANDER NOREN: That would be nice. SARAH GWYNN: How would you assess your season so far? ALEXANDER NOREN: Started off a bit slow and not very good -- a little bit of a problem at the end of last year and I tried a little bit too hard I think to keep playing well as I did in the summer. And then starting off, I went over to the U.S. to practise and didn't go as well as I planned, and then started playing better in China, Korea, I got two good finishes, and then okay at Wentworth. So, it feels a lot better. SARAH GWYNN: When you have a season like last year and you win twice and you finish 14th in The Race to Dubai, you mentioned there was a problem, but does it almost make you take your foot off the gas a little bit and relax too much over the winter? ALEXANDER NOREN: No, it was pretty much the opposite; because I was so mad how I finished the season and didn't feel great about the game. So I tried really hard over the winter, which I probably should have spent a bit more time on trying to keep trying to score instead of changing stuff. So it was more that I wanted -- I spent a lot of time on the golf course, and didn't really take a break and so it was more of that than the opposite. SARAH GWYNN: And coming back to this week, what is it about this course that you particularly liked and did so well last year? ALEXANDER NOREN: It suits my eye a bit. I like the long, big courses where you can -- if you drive it well, you've got a big chance. So that was the key for me last year at this course, the driving. If you can hit the fairways, you can -- because this is a tough course. The winning score was low last year and it usually never is. So I think the driving, and to see it as a course where a couple under every day is good enough. Q. When you talk about the slow start and what's picked up, how far is that momentum taking you towards where you want to be now? ALEXANDER NOREN: Right now I feel better than I did last year at this time. So the swing is looking better. Everything is looking better, and I've trained a lot better the last three months than I've ever been, like more quality practise. So I feel like I'm on the right track and feel like this is a way to -- I looked at how Luke Donald trains, and it's no wonder why he's the best player, because the way he trains. So just trying to look at him and try to see how I can make every shot count even in practise. It feels better than ever, and then it's just up to -- you've got to have the momentum and the confidence to play well and to win. Q. So you've got to be feared this week, because mentally you're in the right place. ALEXANDER NOREN: It's like with golf, I could play great; I could play bad. But yeah, I'm feeling great and I'm feeling at this stage better mentally about my game than last year. If I play great this week, I play great this week. It might not happen but I'm really looking forward to it. Q. Apart from you mentioned Luke Donald, how many players do you study in terms of style and technique and their success? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, I always look at the best players, and the players above me in the rankings. I looked a lot -- I've played a lot with Kaymer throughout the years, maybe not -- especially we came out together on Tour, so I look at him. But it's more the way they practise and the way they prepare for tournaments. They have a little bit more experience than I do, so it's more that -- not too much technique. Yeah, more the other stuff, like how many rounds they play before a major, if they come early or late, how they practise, how many balls they hit. I'm not copying. But you get a sense how they are practising their short game to get sharper. And also, the main thing I think is to play the best courses against the best players and you will improve. That's why I'm so happy to get in the U.S. Open now so I have a chance to do that. Q. Looking back to when you were a youngster, who were your heros? Who were the guys you followed? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, there was always Seve or Couples, Faldo, and then of course the Swedish guys, like Parnevik was the biggest one. Then of course when Tiger came along, I was 15, and of course my idol then. Q. You've never eaten volcanic dust, have you? ALEXANDER NOREN: No. (Laughing). Q. Is there a danger that sometimes you work too hard, Paul Lawrie was saying he has improved since he started playing more and not practising as much. Is there a danger of maybe doing too much? ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, and that's been exactly the case. Now I spend about the same amount on like a golf -- on the course and off the course, but I try to hit less balls, try to take my stretching more seriously. Try to always feel fresh. So if I go to practise, I always feel fresh. I used to go to practise just to practise. Just I go to the range, I have no idea what I'm going to do but I just hit balls for three hours and think I've done a lot but I haven't really done anything. Now I use the TrakMan a lot more. They have got some tests in there that you can do. You get full focus on every shot, which helps a lot, and you know, it's like you try to play a course on the range. My coach, I've got one coach now, and he's all about that, quality on every shot. I know you need a little bit of quantity if you're going to change technique or anything. Q. What's your coach's name? ALEXANDER NOREN: Viktor Gustavsson. He was my putting coach for the last two years, and now we do everything. Q. And the things they track, are they like fairways hit or greens hit? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, you hit 60 balls over wedges and a few irons and a few drives. Mostly wedge, and you get a score for out of a hundred on every shot; this is how good you are this specific shot, and then you add it all up and you get a score. You can see what Luke Donald has done. You can see what all of the other players have done. And for me, it's really like playing a video game. You want to get better and it's easy to match it. Q. What's your best score? ALEXANDER NOREN: I got 89 on a matt indoors, which is probably easier than -- 86 or something. Q. Per cent? ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, I guess it's per cent, out of a hundred. Q. In playing all of those practise rounds with Martin Kaymer, how sort of close do you think you are to getting to where he is? ALEXANDER NOREN: Oh, it's been a long way. I played with him last year -- last time I played with him was last year at the U.S. Open. He's an amazing player. You know, I've got a long way to go but for once I think I'm on the right track. Q. Do you feel under extra pressure this week as defending champion? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, not really. It's just more nice to be back and with all of the memories. Q. And it's the start of a good run for you, a good few weeks for you; are you confident that you can kick start your season here again? ALEXANDER NOREN: Yeah, I hope so. I hope to get a good finish here and Sweden and the U.S. Open. So yeah, really looking forward to it. Q. What do you know about the U.S. Open now that you didn't know before that will help you this year? ALEXANDER NOREN: Well, the thing when you play these like really tough courses, especially at the U.S. Open, because there were a lot -- it plays a bit the same as Wentworth. First you've got to hit this kind of shape and the next a different shape to stay on the fairways and get the way into the greens. A lot of times bigger courses, where you don't have the trees, where you have a fairway, if it's pretty soft, you can hit the same shot. I hit a fade all throughout the spring last year and then I got to the U.S. Open and all of a sudden half the holes, it's a drawing hole. So stuff like that, which I should know, but you know, when it works well with the driver, I hit a lot of fairways in the spring, just kept going and then you get there; so now, I try to be more neutral then just shape it whatever way I want. SARAH GWYNN: Alex, good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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