I played some great golf yesterday! Birdied my first two holes and was three under par and 3 up in my match against So Yeon Ryu at the turn. That's when Ryu went from golfer to birdie machine - I made 8 straight pars and she made 5 birdies and 3 pars. Game over! I lost 2/1 despite being three under par through 17. 

Losing sucks, but I played well - only problem was that Ryu played even better. I guess that's what match play is all about - you can shoot 69 and lose or shoot 75 and win...

I played in a charity event for Golf Fore Africa yesterday at Bayonne Golf Club - an amazing links style course located in the New York City harbour. The views of downtown Manhattan were amazing (despite some ugly factory building) and the rain stayed away most of the day which made for an enjoyable pro-am! I played with two different groups and all eight of them were good players and great people so I have no complaints :) And my caddy, Jason, did a great job guiding me around a golf course that definitely required some local knowledge!
If you ever go to Bayonne to play and follow your GPS - you're not lost when you get to a weird industrial trucking zone, just keep going to the fancy gate house in the end of the shady driveway!

Here are some pics from the day!

The club house with an amazing flag!

Hi Manhattan!

Hi again! Empire State Building, the new Freedom Tower and if you zoom like crazy you'll see the Statue of Liberty!

See that skinny strip of grass? That's the range! And yes, the range balls float!

Gothenburg (Göteborg) spoiled me with absolutely beautiful weather the first few days - nice and sunny, hardly a cloud in the sky and warmish temperatures! The line to the restaurant at my home course (Delsjö GK) was through the doors, there were plenty of people honing their skills on the range and practice greens and quite a few people were enjoying the course as well!
There is something special about nice spring days in Sweden. Everyone seems to be outside enjoying the weather - gardening, golfing, going for walks or just having picnics in the park. It definitely puts a smile on my face seeing everyone moving around and acting as if it's 80 degrees when it is in fact only 50 or so. Crazy Swedes :)

I have spent plenty of time with my family, but was also able to pull my friends away from work for a nice dinner the other night! They are all going to run a half marathon here in Gothenburg on Saturday, which is great for me - I get to see everyone again, even the ones not living here anymore!

No matter how much I'm enjoying myself here at home, I have to admit that getting back into the LPGA swing of things next week will be great! Two weeks off is almost too much, if you ask me....

s!

This time I was supposed to go from OKC to Chicago, but we ended up two hours delayed due to weather at O'Hare. This caused me to miss my connection to Sweden, so I called the United Airlines call center, which happens to be located in Chicago. They said that the weather was perfect.... Very strange.

Either way, I was able to get on a flight to Munich and I'm currently on my 5th hour here with only a couple more to go before finally getting on the flight to Gothenburg! Home sweet home!

A big junior golf tournament is being played at my home course, Delsjö GK next weekend and Linda Wessberg (LET player) and I are hosting it - the inaugural Wessberg & Sjödin JMI Open! My role is to be the starter on the 11th tee. Yes, I did say number 11... Our course starts with a par 3, which would clog the field and the 11th tee is much closer to the clubhouse than the 10th, so we're starting the kids on holes 2 and 11. We like to think outside the box :)
The choice to be the starter on 11 was an easy one - the halfway house is right there and Delsjön has the best cinnamon rolls known to man! I'm going to make sure there are none left when I leave Saturday evening!

I'm going to do quite a bit of practicing while home, since I'm flying straight from Sweden to the Sybase Match Play Tournament outside of New York City. I love match play and can't wait to tee it up again in just over a week! The perfect LPGA schedule, in my opinion, would include more events with "fun" formats, such as match play or a team event with alternate shot, best ball, etcetera! Fun times!

Time for latte number three! I'm determined not to fall asleep until at least 9 pm tonight!

After the bugs, it's time for the bills. And then the unpacking and laundry. Which is usually followed by packing for the next trip... Guess it's all part of the glamourous LPGA Tour life :) 

Don't worry - I'm done complaining now! Those boring chores are the only negatives about my job!

I started practicing again yesterday and putting was on the schedule. I wasn't happy about the way I felt over the ball and the way I rolled it the last two weeks. Going back to basics with all my normal putting drills and hope to get the feeling I had at Kraft back! 
I don't think that it was all me though - the greens in Hawaii were really slow and had quite a bit of grain in them and the ones in Alabama were also grainy. It's easy to blame oneself when the ball is bouncing, even though it might be the greens causing it. 
I love the bent grass we have here in Oklahoma! I'm fortunate enough to have two places with near perfect greens to work on my putting - Karsten Creek and Oak Tree National! The only problem is choosing which course to go to every morning :)

I didn't play very well to start the week in Hawaii, but my game got better and better as the week went on. The finish would have been a lot better had my putter behaved, but I guess that's the way golf is... I felt as if I hit the putts the way I wanted to, but couldn't figure the greens out. Finished the tournament with a 70 (2 under par) to get back to Even for the week and a tie for 27th place. Not great, but an OK week considering I didn't get much out of the way I was hitting the ball. Really looking forward to the Mobile Bay Classic this week!!!

I brought my camera out for some more photography fun the last few days. Enjoy!

Sun Studies

Beach Studies

View from my balcony

This week's tournament is played at Ko Olina Golf Club on Oahu, Hawaii. It's sponsored by LOTTE, a Korean company, and is played Wednesday through Saturday this week. That means that it will be televised live on TV in Korea Thursday through Sunday... The wonder of time changes and the international date line!

I played the front nine yesterday with fellow Swede and Cowgirl Caroline Hedwall. She's a great player and a good friend of mine and playing with Carro is always a lot of fun! Since we played here my first two years on tour, I'm quite familiar with the course. It's always nice to recognize all the holes and remembering what lines to take off the tees, etcetera. They have redone the greens though, so I spent some extra time working on putting and chipping on each hole and also on the practice area after the round.

Today I played the other side and finished it off with some good practice before leaving the course. I ventured out of the resort and found a nice little beach with huge turtles swimming around by the rocks - what a beautiful site! I tried to take some photos with my phone, but seeing the turtles is pretty hard. Use your imagination and you might see what I saw snapping the pic :)

Tan lines are cool! Spending some quality time with my white feet!


Not ugly. At all...

My plan was to be helpful and give you my tee times for the tournament, translated into Oklahoman and Swedish. That's not gonna happen in this blog though, as the LPGA has yet to finalize the them. So check back later on today/tonight and I might have been able to add them!

The short game is also coming along nicely and I've been spending plenty of time on the practice greens at Karsten Creek as of late. Aim, ball start and speed are the areas I focus on the most and I have quite a few fun drills that help me improve.

I got a nice surprise when I got back from Oak Tree National today! A box from TaylorMade containing two new toys: an exact copy of the putter I'm currently using (see below) and this year's version of the same putter. Scott spent some extra time making sure the bottom of the putters look great - complete with my last name and sporting the Oklahoma State colors (orange and black)! Love it!!!

In early January I traveled to La Manga, Spain, for the Ladies European Tour Q-school. this was the view from our apartment! Beautiful!

Checking out the views!

Castillo de Santa Barbara and apartment buildings in Alicante, Spain

My great friend Josefin Leijon checking out one of the streets in Alicante

And then there was Melbourne, Australia!

Some interesting flowers...

Interesting mix of new and old in Melbourne

I loved all the green areas in the city center! And the mix of modern buildings and old churches, etc

Native Australian art. Beautiful!!!

On the way up the Gondola in Palm Springs. Up we go!

Time to get back to practice again. Heading to Hawaii on Saturday - back to Ko Olina, where we played my first two years on tour. Should be fun!!!

To be perfectly honest - I was a bit disappointed after the round on Sunday, but then I started thinking... If someone had told me a week ago that I was going to finish 4th I would have been overjoyed and extremely excited and proud of my performance. So I am!! 
That doesn't mean that I don't want to win the next time we tee it up though :)

Thank you so much for all support over the last few days! The messages, tweets, emails, comments, etc made everything that much more special!!!

I just realized that I have yet to update karinsjodin.com with this year's schedule and finish off last year's results. Guess I have some work to do tomorrow! Not to mention adding some pics to this blog and the media section to lighten things up a bit. Any other requests???

This week's event is the Kraft Nabisco Championship - our first major of the year! I played my way into the field thanks to my finish in Phoenix and I'm really excited to be here! The Palm Springs area is beautiful and we're getting seriously spoiled at Mission Hills Country Club!
I had quite the uneventful round today - 16 pars, one birdie and one bogey. I was hitting it really well and my putting was a lot better than the stats show. My speed was great and I continuously burned the edges of the holes. I spent some time on the practice green after the round and I hope the putts will fall for me tomorrow!

I'm teeing off in the second group tomorrow morning at 7.25 local time. That's 9.25 in Oklahoma and I believe it's 15.25 in Sweden. The fact that the US and Sweden don't change to daylight savings time at the same time confuses me...

The first two days can be summed up with one word: steady! I made a million pars and some birdies to go into the weekend at 7 under par. The beginning of Saturday's round was more of the same: pars. Then everything changed! Starting on hole number 6 I made two pars, 6 birdies and 5 bogeys for a one under par 71. My steady play was back on Sunday, but an unfortunate finish dropped me to a tie for 10th place. 
I'm really excited about my game and can't wait to tee it up again this week at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad, California! I played great for 71 holes and that's what I'm going to build on for the rest of the season!

I had a great off season with lots of golf, lots of travel, some tournaments, and unfortunately a pneumonia... The latter forced me to pull out of LET Q-school despite being in the top ten with only a couple of rounds left to play. The disappointment of not being able to compete and earn my card to the European Tour was somewhat diminished when the LPGA kept adding events to the 2012 schedule. I'm still hoping to get some invites to LET events, since I want to play more golf and would love to spend a bit more time in Europe!

It's almost time for me to head to the course for some good practice before my afternoon tee time. This week RR Donnelley chose to go with a 9 hole pro am - the amateurs play 18 holes, but they have a different pro for the front and the back nine. We love this - more players get involved in the pro ams and the time constraint isn't nearly as demanding! And I believe that the amateurs enjoy getting to see two different playing styles and getting to know two players instead of just one. In my mind, it's a win/win!

Merry Christmas!!!

I have also spent some time at the gym, which resulted in sore arms and legs. That's probably the point of going there, but it still surprises me every time it happens. Not sure why... But I do know that some sloppy conversion of weights from pounds to kilos on my part played a big role in the tenderness. Oh well, back at it again tomorrow! Sportlife, a big chain of gyms in Sweden, are kind enough to help me out and I get to use all of their facilities free of charge! It's GREAT! Thank you, Sportlife!

And I couldn't stay away from the golf course despite some nasty weather. We actually had some nice sunshine here today and the cold temperatures were not a factor thanks to great heaters in the little bays on the driving range at Delsjö GK. I'm working on mechanics and the drills are a bit redundant, but I can see progress, which makes it all worthwhile! I'm going to try to get to the course early in the next few days and hopefully get the whole place to myself so I can get some music going to lighten up the mood. I always intend to listen to music, but it usually turns into some Swedish radio podcasts from SR.se. Great stuff! 

I just got to Sweden to spend the holidays at home with my family! It's gray, wet, cold and dark outside, but I still love it here! Gothenburg is home to me and I'm pretty sure it will be that way no matter how many years I spend in the US.

The last month has been very productive! My coach, EJ Pfister, has given me a few things to work on in my swing and it's already feeling pretty good! The winter might be the off season in terms of tournament golf, but it is probably the busiest time of the year when it comes to making changes in swing mechanics. It takes a while to change details in the golf swing and it's nice to be able to dig into it without having to worry about tournaments and scores.

I am also continuing to improve my short game, but that process is on hold for the time being. The Swedish winters aren't optimal for pitching and chipping practice... :)

Golf is a weird game. My iron play has always been my biggest strength, but not this year. It's actually been a big part of my struggles. I was, however, able to work on a few kinks and hit it great during the first two rounds of the Navistar Classic, which felt great! There is nothing like hitting it exactly where you want to, to have plenty of birdie opportunities and to be able to attack the course!!! (I did struggle on the greens last week. Bermuda is not my cup of tea...)
I have greatly improved my putting. I don't know if the stats show it, but I'm rolling it much better and starting the ball on the line I want to - now I just have to learn how to read greens. A minor detail ;)

I know that I'm surrounded by the right people to help me get to where I want to go with my golf. E.J. Pfister, who teaches out of Oak Tree National in Edmond, is not just a great teacher, but an even better person. He makes everything sound so simple and is extremely patient with my stubbornness. And Jon Karlsen with the Swedish Golf Team knows everything there is to know about putting and he has even made putting practice enjoyable! There are too many people to mention, but these two deserve some extra recognition. 

Happy to be playing in the Pro/Scratch at Oak Tree National

Oak Tree National hosts a Pro/Scratch tournament on an annual basis and I played in it the past two days. It's a best ball event and each team consists of a pro golfer and a scratch amateur. Cliff and I struggled yesterday, but the event is great fun and I'm already looking forward to next year! There are so many good golfers and great people out at Oak Tree National and it's impossible not to get inspired when being out there. 
I'm now back in Stillwater, but I'm heading to Sweden tomorrow for a charity golf event, Barngolfen 2011, and to spend some quality time with my family! I can't wait!!!

I should also mention that I have been elected to serve on the Board of Directors as a player representative (Player Director). I'm really looking forward to learning more about our organization and to hopefully be a good addition to the LPGA team!

Anyway, this is a new week and I'm lucky enough to have my coach E.J. Pfister here in Alabama! He does some work for Navistar and is here to give lessons to their customers and other VIP people. E.J. was able to give me a couple of lessons too and I'm feeling really good about my game now! I did have a hard time on the greens today, but my ball striking was really good, especially with my irons! I'm BACK ;) 
The course has brand new greens this year which is really nice! The only problem is that they are Bermuda greens - not my favourite... I'm not used to hearing the ball roll on the green (bent grass is quiet...) and the breaks are also a bit different compared to bent grass. But E.J. helped me on the practice green after the round today and I feel ready to attack the course tomorrow!

I also have to tell you about a junior clinic I was a part of on Tuesday. A trick shot guy was in charge and I was one of three"helpers". It was extremely impressive to see him play around with golf balls and clubs and I hope the kids were as entertained as I was. They posted some pictures from the event here - check it out!

However, bugs make this time of the year a bit less amazing. We normally have a few spiders or other nasty bugs on the floors, especially if we've been gone for a while. But when I got back to Stillwater this past Monday I was greeted by a snake. Yes a SNAKE!!! I hate bugs. I'm scared of spiders... and all other crawling creatures, for that matter. And I'm terrified of snakes! All it took to move it from the living room to the outside was a pair of winter boots (to protect my feet and ankles), a tall stool, a golf club and a shovel. Mission accomplished - the snake is now on the patio. And after checking out Oklahoma snakes on-line I learned that it's a non-venomous, harmless snake that eats earthworms. Still scary though!

I find turtles extremely exotic, even though they seem to live absolutely everywhere in the US. Here's an empty shell I found at the golf course the other day. With intact hip (?) bone...

And last, but not least - a picture of lightning damage from a few weeks ago. I think my neighbor's tree was attacked. The middle part of the tree is dead now, while the other branches are nice and green. Interesting!

I've been practicing here in Oklahoma for the past few days and it's pretty hard to stay focused for entire days in this heat. Getting to the course before the mercury hits 90 is a key - that gives you time to practice before the sweat starts flooding down the shins (disgusting). I felt a bit wild and crazy yesterday and volunteered to play 18 holes with the Women's Team at Oklahoma State. I carried my own bag, teed off at 1.30 and thought I'd suffer a heat stroke by the time I reached the first green. Well, I might have exaggerated a bit there, but I did drink more than 0.5 liters per hole and suffered big time when the water jugs were starting to get empty on the back nine. My one over 73 was OK all things considered. The rough at Karsten is a beast! I managed to advance the ball 150 once, but that was from a "good lie" and downhill... Fairways and greens were the way to go and I managed to do that most the time!

Monday was a day of practice at Pumpkin Ridge and I was back in my "normal" tournament routine with a practice round early Tuesday morning. I managed to beat the rush by teeing off at 7.30 and making the turn in 1 hour and 20 minutes! Amazing! The back nine took a bit longer, but Louise Friberg kept me company and provided plenty of entertainment! I played in the tournament Pro-Am yesterday afternoon with four great guys, who made the day enjoyable despite not getting off the course until 8 pm. Today I was back practicing early in the morning and had a nice relaxing afternoon to get ready for the start of the tournament at 2 pm tomorrow. That is 4 o'clock in Oklahoma and 11 pm in Sweden. Pretty sure not even a dedicated mother can stay awake for the finish of that round ;)

Portland is a beautiful city and this part of the US reminds me a bit of Sweden. The trees smell the same way and the air is nice and crisp. Not to mention the cold nights, cool evenings and daily highs in the mid 70's. There is simply nothing to complain about!

We flew by Mount Hood on the way from Denver to Portland. Amazed the picture turned out, despite being shot through the window... And that is not snow to the right of the mountain - it's clouds

A must-do when in Sweden for the summer - picking mushroom!

Mushroom Art

A must-do wherever you are - baking! Cinnamon buns and a pretty loaf/braid

Swedish Lake

Kayaking in the archipelago outside of Gothenburg

No sand between the toes when enjoying the ocean where I am from!

Calm, shark-free waters

Mölle in southern Sweden

This is the boat I would want if I would want a boat

Flower and Bee Art

My Family!!! (on a botanical quiz walk courtesy of my Mom...)

The sunsets in Mölle are AMAZING

I'm also happy to announce that I'm allowed to go back to the US when this vacation is over! I had my VISA interview in Stockholm last week and was approved, so you guys are stuck with me for another five years now. I will definitely make the most out of them, I promise!

The last time I was in Sweden was over Christmas and I have had a lot of catching up to do this week. I have great friends and family and I love spending time with them whenever I can. So far I have picked lots of mushrooms in the forests, avoided even more tics while searching for the shrooms, helped a friend build a garage, spent hours playing cards while the rain has poured outside and baked some delicious cinnamon rolls. Starting today, I'm back playing golf! I'm going to inhale some lunch now and then head to the range for a little practice session before teeing off. Can't wait!

The West Wing of Broadmoor

Posing swan

Is the swan checking himself out in the "mirror"?

Garden of the Gods - reminded me a bit of the road trip my Mom, Aunt and I made in April

Sofie Andersson climbing one of the rock formations

Balancing act

Pikes Peak in the distance. Heard it was the 31st highest mountain in the US, but haven't confirmed it

Kids got to try golf right next to the first hole

And somewhere down there, by all the people is the 1st tee box!

View of the house we rented from Will Rogers Shrine

And that's the hotel at Broadmoor and a few of the holes we played

Master bedroom of the house we rented - hello UGLY

Wallpaper and carpet - why not?

And this is my "Good Luck Duck" hanging out at the Will Rogers Shrine