Driving to the Top

PGA Rookie Gabriel Hjertstedt is chipping his way toward stardom on the world’s most competitive golfing tour-Entering the B.C. Open at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, New York, Gabriel Hjertstedt wasn’t so much concerned about winning as he was surviving.In his rookie season on the PGA tour, the 26-year old Swede had found the waters rough, missing the cut in 12 of the 20 tournaments he’d entered. That left him at the deep end of the money standing with a mere $27, 144 in earnings, far off the pace needed to automatically qualify for exempt status heading into the 1998 season.He qualified to play on the tour in 1997 by finishing tied for ninth at qualifying school last year. It was a nerve-wrecking process he had no interest in reliving. So the plan was plain and simple. Make the cut in the last four tournaments of the season, then squeeze as much cash out of each event to help boost him into the 125 in earnings and re-qualify him for 1998.Winning, however, was never a part of the equation. That is until he reached the 16th hole of the final round and found himself tied for the lead with veteran Andrew Magee, a five-time tour champion. Hjertstedt (pronounced YET-STET) saw a chance to grab the big money plus receive qualifying exemption not just for next year, but 1999 as well. And he took it.After a perfect drive and short chip, he one-timed a six-foot birdie putt and walked away from the hole at minue-13 and a one stroke lead that would hold up the rest of the way, earning him the B.C. Open trophy and lion’s share of the purse, a whopping $ 234, 000. It also gave him the opportunity to finally relax for the first time since the beginning of the season.”I got to the last round and I really wanted to win it,” says Hjertstedt, who started play on Sunday a stroke behind the leader. “That morning I told myself that I was going to go out and do everything I could to win the thing.”It appeared that his aggressive approach may have been the right move, as he started bogey, double bogey to drop four shots off the pace after just two holes. But he regained his composure as well as his stroke, making birdie on three of the next four holes to pull back to even – par for the day. After another birdie on the tenth hole he was in contention.

That led to his decision on hole 16 to take a chance and hit driver to the 321 – yard par four.”That’s really a tough hole because there’s only about a ten-yard landing area for your drive, so you have to hit it perfect. It’s about 285 (yards) to the front edge and there’s about nine bunkers surrounding the green,” he recalls. “I had played it safe the previous three days by laying up, but after seeing Magee bogey the hole, I told my brother that we were either going to win it or finish tenth, so let’s go for it. I hit the perfect drive then the perfect chip, then the perfect putt.”By the time he got to the 18th tee the adrenaline was pumping and he drilled a solid 320-yard drive dead center on the fairway, hit an easy wedge to within 15 feet of the flag, and then two-putted to close the deal. ”It was great, ” he says, allowing a bit of emotion to peak through. “It took a few days for it really to sink in. I remember walking up the 18th fairway and the people were cheering and it was kind of like living a dream.”Of course, heading into that weekend there really was no reason for Hjertstedt to believe that his dream of winning a first PGA Tour event might come true at EnJoi. Up to that point his best finish had been tied for 36th at the Quad City Classic in Coal Valley, Illinois. Early in the season just making the cut was a major feat.  In nine of the first ten events he went home early, missing the final rounds where the money is made.But in the weeks preceding the B.C. Open, things started to turn around. Hjertstedt made the cut in three straight tourneys, and was putting together two, and sometimes three good rounds in a weekend.  Finally, it all came together in up-state New York when he carded red scores of 70-69-66-70 for a four-round total of 275.Since his win he’s made the cut in both tournament’s he’s entered giving him six in a row, which is tied for the 16th best on the tour.

And in his final event of the year, he finished tied for 27th at the Las Vegas Invitational with an eight-under-par score of 352. A respectable finish for Hjertstedt in his first year playing with the big boys.”My game has improved so much through the course of the year,” he admits. “It’s at a level now where I have a lot of confidence to go out there and hit shots and not worry too much. When you play against this level of competition you have to start laying better or you’ll be gone.”I thought that I could be successful on the his tour, but I didn’t think a win would come this soon. It was nice to break through and get that first one.”Through his victory was certainly unexpected, his rise to golf stardom was not. Hjertstedt began playing the game around the same time his parents moved the family from Sweden to Australia when he was 11 years old.  By the time he was 15 people began to recognize his talent. When he was 17 he proved that he was among the best junior golfers by winning the 1989 Doug Sanders World Junior Championships in Scotland for players 18 and under. A year later he helped lead his Swedish team to a first-ever Eisenhower World Amateur Championship, defeating a U.S. contingent that included future PGA star Phil Mickelson. Both  events were momentous.”Winning the World Junior was a big achievement for me, personally,” says the low-key Hjertstedt.

“Then winning the World Team Championship a year later was tremendous. That was a big deal for Swedish golf because there had never been a team close to winning that.” After that he began to play for pay, touring the major stops in Australia and Japan and doing fairly well. In 1994 at the age of 23 he made almost $ 300,000 and was ranked 158th in the world. From there he moved to the European Tour in 1995 where he first began to experience a health problem that would plague him throughout the year.”I was in Italy in a restaurant and I got a cramp in my throat,” Hjertstedt recalls vividly. “It was like a bad leg cramp and I started hyperventilating. It was really a scary situation because I didn’t know what was happening to me.

Finally it settled down but these attacks continued to happen.”After several visits to doctors in Sweden he was diagnosed with having panic attacks, and that there was no physical cause involved. That meant it was coming from upstairs, which Hjertstedr failed to accept. So he went for more opinions. Only to be told the same thing again and again.Throughout this period of diagnosis his game suffered, as did his health. With the threat of attacks occurring when he’d eat he began to neglect his nutrition, which in turn affected his play. And the more he struggled on the course, the more his conditions would deteriorate. Left with little choice he turned to one last option: the dentist. And that’s where the truth was revealed in July of 1996, over a year after his first attack.”I have what’s known as TMJ (Temporpmandibudrome),” he says. “I began working with this dentist and he pulled a couple of teeth and fit me with a mouth-piece, which put my jaw in a different position. In less than a month I was back to normal and everything was going good again.”TMJ occurs when there is excessive strain on the jaw muscles, a displaced disk in the jaw or some type of degenerative joint disease. The most common cause is a strain to the temporalis muscles that open and close the jaw and can stem from unconsciously clenching or grinding teeth, jutting the jaw forward, or an improper bite caused by misaligned teeth. The symptoms for TMJ are pain in the ears or in the facial muscles, a clicking or popping of the jaw when opening the mouth or moving the jaw, difficulty opening the mouth due to pain and headaches.

More serious symptoms are closure of the throat, which Hjertstedt experienced, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and lock-jaw.”I knew it was never a mental thing,” Hjertstedt says. ” On occasion some of the symptoms will return, and when that happens I’ll put my mouthpiece back in and it will usually go away in a day or so.”What was fixed in a month’s time, how-ever had cost his golf game a year. And more significantly, it had sapped a good bit  of the strength and energy from his body. Knowing that he would need to rebuild his strength and increase his stamina for the upcoming tour season, he began to search for nutrition and training advice. He found John Parrillo.”I lost ten pounds the first month I experienced TMJ problem,” says Hjertstedt. who really doesn’t have ten pounds to give, weighing in at 142 pounds while standing 5-foot, 9 1/2 inches. “Obviously I lost ground during that year, so it was a matter of working really hard before this season to get into reasonable condition.”You may not associate a golfer with someone you’d find in the weight room, but the more we learn about building strength and flexibility, the more sense it makes to get involved in a training program.

When you’re on the road 30 weeks of the year playing the amount of golf we do, you have to be in pretty good shape or you won’t last very long.”Hjertstedt thinks that with the help of Parrillo, he’ll be better than average in distance within three years.”John’s been great at talking with me over the phone and explaining to me the kind of things I should be doing,” says Hjertstedt who makes his U.S. residence in California. “It’s good to have someone in sports training who has an understanding of how the muscles work and the correct way to train to get the desired effect.”A lot of people I’ve talked to have told me to stay away from weights because it would hurt my flexibility. But golf is a violent game. A good golf swing is very technical, but involves acceleration and speed, and if I can improve in those areas, I can increase my length around the course, cutting strokes. And John’s a real proponent of stretching after each set so I’m not particularly worried about losing my flexibility.

In fact, since I’ve started working with him, I think it’s gotten better.”And as far as nutrition is concerned, Hjertstedt’s has gotten better and his results have proven it especially here at the end of the season.  And he’ll really been eating good now as he hopes to put on some extra mass this off-season before returning to the tour in January.  And of course, when he’s on the course you’ll always find a Parrillo bar or two tucked in his bag.”On the back of nine I always start feeling a little tired, and that’s when I’ll eat a Parrillo Bar, “he says.” I don’t know if I could’ve played as well as I did down the stretch if it wasn’t for those bars.  It’s made a huge difference for me and I’d be interested to see how other players would do if they started using them.  They’ve been the perfect source of energy for me.”So while Tiger Woods’ and Greg Norman of the golfing world continue to walk in the spotlight, keep an eye out for this Swede to make his mark of the golf course in 1998. With a season of pro experience and a year of Parrillo Performance guidance under his belt, you know it won’t be long before his name Hjertstedt will be among those listed as the top players in the game.