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Warming up for Wentworth - with Anders Hansen

Home on the range with some old friends

Posted: 21 May 2009
by Andrew Raitt

Hansen chipping on his way to victory in the BMW at Wentworth in 2007

It's the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth this week where the cream of the European Tour are in action and earlier I took the chance to catch up with old friends and some of the players I have spent the last ten years chasing around the world competing against.

Anders Hansen is working on his address position

Wentworth's West Course is a different test to many of the new courses they play on Tour, with its tree-lined fairways and firm, sloping greens. Accuracy is of premium importance, even with the great job local resident and former majors-winner Ernie Els has made extending and re-bunkering the famous Burma Road track.

Accuracy at this level comes from consistency and quality of strike and in the field this week is Dane Anders Hansen, twice a winner of the PGA Championship and holder of the scoring record for 72 holes here in 2002.

Anders is a fantasic striker of a golf ball. He has an extremely compact swing and has already shown he has the belief and class to win the tour's flagship event...twice!

Having won already this season at the Joburg Open in South Africa, Anders is relaxed and knows his game is in good shape.

"My swing feels good and I am just working on my basics. I have been concentrating on my address position and rythym," he tells me as he fires a succession of 6-iron shots at the 175-yard flagstick on the practice range, with a fairly strong wind coming into his face off the right.

The little greens cut around the marker flags on the Wentworth practice ground are very small and his distance control is exceptional.

Hansen with caddie John McLaren

Early on in his career, I remember, he was very hard on himself when competing on the course. But now he has mellowed. As a tournament professional, he says, it's vital to have that inner peace in order to allow yourself to play well and get the best out of the golf you produce.

From personal experience, I can confirm that if the inner determination that is essential in professional sport, bubbles into frustration, any negative momentum that will inevitably happen over 72 holes, can spiral into a series of mistakes that takes away your opportunity at being in the hunt heading into the back nine on Sunday.

In 2007 when Anders won the PGA for the second time, it was his first week with caddie John McClaren on his bag. John is a hugely likeable character who has caddied for many successful players on both sides of the Atlantic.

They have been a partnership ever since and the chemistry between them is very positive. After seven top 25 finishes this season already, including 20th and 21st in the last two events, don't be surprised if Anders achieve the success the quality of his game deserves - sooner rather than later!