December 2000 December 1 - PGA Tour School 30th at the Nicklaus Tournament Course - Score 70. A reasonable day and with the quality of the field this score actually moved me back to tied 48th. However I'm still in good shape and telling myself to remain patient. The best reminder of this was at the opening par 5. I started with 2 birdies and was looking to make another when..bam.. a double bogey from nowhere ! Stay patient is the theme of the week and there is still a long way to go. I play at 0930 tomorrow and would like to shoot 60 something to stay in a good spot leading into the pressure packed weekend...Keep the positive thoughts coming!!...Per December 2 - PGA Tour School I have just come in from Round 3 and am happy to report I had my best day yet. I shot 65 and moved up form tied 38th to tied 15th. I really played well today and only had one bogey at the 17th. I put this out of my mind and followed it with birdie at 18 to make dinner taste better. I'm now halfway through the event and it inevitable that my thoughts turn to the PGA TOUR. But there are still 3 rounds to go. I've played myself into position and I need to continue to use my experience to make my dream come true. I'm feeling positive and ready for Round 4 tomorrow. The opportunity to join my good friend Jesper Parnevik on TOUR is one I relish and as you will find out tomorrow there is even a family connection between us....Per December 3 - PGA Tour School It was another scorcher in the desert. I shot a 2 under 70 which has me in about 20th position. I played as well as yesterday but it was one of those days when it didn't really go my way. I got off to a good start but my nemisis, the par 5 15th named "Long Island" got me again. For the second time I layed up and for the second time I finished in a divot. I may rename it "long divot" if it happens again! I'm here this week with my girlfriend, Jill and that makes the week so much more enjoyable. After the days play we can have a normal existance and go to the mall or go for dinner. Often pro golfers live in hotels and live on room service food, so it's great to get out and see some of the Palm Springs area. Jill's surname is Parnevik. You may have heard of her brother. His name is Jesper. He has told me that if we get married I should take the Parnevik name rather than Jill taking Johansson (nice joke Jesper!) I'm still feeling confident for the next 2 days. I would love to shoot a low score tomorrow to take some pressure off for the final day. However, whatever is thrown at me I have the experience to deal with it. I can feel the tension in the air growing as we near "Tour Card day" and there is a very different atmosphere here to a regular PGA TOUR or European Tour event. We are so used to playing for money that we don't think about it. The money is a function of playing well. Here, we are all playing for our 2001 season and everyone knows it. As I was leaving the course everyone was talking about the score of the tournament by David Gossett, a 59. That is an amazing score on a difficult golf course. Congratulations to David for getting himself back in the hunt. December 4 - PGA Tour School Sorry about the site being down. Server problems, whatever that means! Phew...I made it and I know for a fact that it hasn't sunk in yet. As I said yesterday I did not want to focus on a number to shoot. I just wanted to play my best golf possible and hope that that would be good enough. It was a really tense day and at times it was unbearable. There are no scoreboards on the course so it is impossible to know how you are doing relative to the field. I heard the odd comment from scorers but I tried to stay focussed on the job in hand and stay in the present (as the sports psychologists would say). Easy to say but not so easy to do when the prize is a TOUR card! I ended up shooting 70 to move to 15 under and that was the exact number to gain entry to the TOUR. I was first off this morning at 0800 so I had 2 hours in the clubhouse before I knew for absolute certain that I was in. Many people were congratulating me but until the last putt was in I didn't believe it. I played well today and had so many birdie putts that I just couldn't make. Coming up the 15th I was 15 under and must admit that I had 16 under in my mind at this point. I hit a bad drive and poor second and a bogey was the result to move me back to-14. The 16th is a makable par 5 and I hit my best shot of the week, a high draw off a down hill lie onto the green to make a 2 putt birdie. On 17 I hit another great shot, an 8 iron to 2 feet over the water and I was back on my target number. I won't go into too much detail about the 18th. It was a bogey blur !.. and as I discovered 2 hours later it was enough...just. Dinner tonight with Jill, Nick and my caddy Paul is going to taste really good. Thanks to all of them for their support this week. I travel back to Sweden tomorrow to see my Doctor about my bad hip and then I will sit down and plan my schedule for 2001. The opportunity to play on the PGA TOUR is something all professional golfers dream about and my dream starts in a few weeks. See you in 2001 Sunday December 10 - Visiting Sweden It's been a crazy week. I 've been so busy I had to switch my phone off at one point! I couldn't get anything done because the phone kept ringing with people wanting to congratulate me! Thanks for all the messages and emails and notes. It's been amazing and I really appreciate it. I plan on spending a few days in Sweden with friends and family before back to hitting balls in readiness for Australia. The next World Golf Championship is in Australia (Melbourne) and I may get the opportunity to play in it. The Anderson ( now Accenture) World Matchplay is for the top 64 players in the World but it seems as though a number of guys don't want to travel at that time of the year. I'm not sure I do but this is too good an opportunity to pass up and I need to get my season off to a flyer and what better way than to play in the first WGC of the year. I'll keep you posted about this event. The other pages on my site will be updated next month with my 2001 schedule and some possible changes to equipment…watch this space!…Per Sunday December 31 - Melbourne I am now in Melbourne for a New Year celebration with Jill and my friend Adam and his wife (Adam is caddying this week in the Accenture Matchplay). There have been 40 withdrawals from the original field of 64, which is very disappointing for the organisers. But that does give someone a huge opportunity to win a$1 million and shoot up the rankings. It may as well be me! We spent a couple of days in Sydney before moving over here yesterday. Sydney is fantastic. So many things to see, great food and hospitable people. We played Royal Sydney, which is short but good. My first match is on Wednesday and on the Internet I saw a draw which puts me against the American, Steve Flesch. I will need to play well, because like all of the field and despite the fact that some might not be household names Steve is a good player. I will keep you all posted with news from the event. Happy New Year to you all…Per Next Month Back to News Archive