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Life lessons: Robert Karlsson

 The Swedish professional golfer shares his life’s wisdom

The golfer Robert Karlsson was born in Sweden in 1969. He has won 11 European Tour titles and in 2008 became the first Swede to win the tour’s Order of Merit. He will defend his crown in the season-ending Dubai World Championship beginning on Thursday.

 

1. Let yourself go. I found I would play well when I had fun on the golf course. So instead of focusing solely on becoming the best golfer in the world and then beating myself up when I didn’t play well, I decided to try to have fun instead and the results got better.

2. Get the right perspective on what is happening. I sustained a serious eye injury in 2009, which meant I had no depth perception in my left eye. I had to take stock of my career to date and accept the fact that I might never be on top of my game again. I was off for several months, but kept reminding myself that I had won a lot of titles, and the Order of Merit, and that if I did nothing else, that was still a successful career.

3. Be thankful for what you have and don’t be endlessly striving for what you don’t have. Even if I play poorly and miss four cuts in a row, I still have my European Tour card and the prize money I have earned so far. Lots of players don’t even get on the tour.

4. Always learn from things that happen to you. If something bad happens you can choose to be weakened by it, or to grow from it. I find the periods I am struggling are the periods I learn the most from. You can get bitter and angry, but a better way round is to realise that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

5. Have patience, and have faith that things will work out. Believe in your own ability. But also be prepared to work hard to improve. Have patience with yourself as a person. It takes time to change something like a golf swing, and you need to have patience and belief to do so.

 

As told to Helena Frith Powell

The Dubai World Championship runs from December 8 to 11 at Jumeirah Golf Estate.

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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