Player Blog: Alex Levy

Ahead of the European Tour's first visit to China of 2017, Alex Levy writes about returning to a course he's won at, playing golf in the snow, Pete Cowen and his love of Olympique de Marseille...

For me it is always nice to come back to China.It was my first European Tour win and whenever you speak to a player about their memories of golf tournaments and big occasions, you always remember your first victory. I can still remember the holes I scored well on for my course record 62.

This golf course really suits my game - it is open from the tee and has soft greens, so it’s more like target golf, which for me is how I like to play golf.This week in Shenzhen, we always go back to the Japanese restaurant at our hotel. It is really nice and one of my favourite places here, so I was there last night straight after my flight.

After the DP World Tour Championship last year, I said to myself now is the time to challenge myselfand look at making some changes to my game. I had five or six years with my last coach, we had some great times and he helped build me from amateur to a winner on Tour, but it was the right time to change things up with a new coach and culture. And that’s how Pete Cowan came along. He works with some of the top players in the world, plus with his experience and knowledge of the short game that’s what drew me in. I think if you want to be a great player, you have to have a great short game.

Earlier this year we played golf in the snow in Val d’Isere and it was pretty amazing.I’m not the biggest fan of skiing, I prefer the sea and the beach, but I was invited by BMW to come along to their World Golf Cup event and we spent the day hitting balls in the snow with Raphaёl Jacquelin, Nicolas Colsaerts, Grégory Havret and Romain Langasque. It was pretty fun but tough at the same time. You definitely need to have the weather on your side, because it gets tricky but we all managed to hit some decent shots.

The Hero Challenge last year at the British Masters was one of the best things I have ever done outside of a golf tournament.It was too much fun! For me it was one of the best ideas from the Tour and I would love to see it at the Open de France on the 16th this year, but I know we have a few more tournaments already planned and I cannot wait to play again.

I was in Morocco when I started to watch the last round of the Masters around the tenth.It was an incredible battle, they are both really nice guys and I am happy for Sergio that he has finally won a Major, he deserved it. But at the same time, I’m a little sad for Justin because he is a nice guy and has finished second a couple of times. It was a great fight in the end, they show you how to play under pressure and win what I think is the biggest tournament for us, so you have to respect both of those guys for what they did on the day.

I have always followed Olympique de Marseille FC.I was born in the US and when I came back with my family to Marseille you could see the stadium from where I was living as a child, so it was natural that I would support them and go to their games. When I won the Volvo China Open in 2014 and finished my season, I did a kick-off in front of 65,000 people and it was a great memory for me.

When I come back, I always try to see some games. I have seen two games in the last eight weeks when we played against Paris and Monaco, so big games and unfortunately we lost but I hope we will keep improving.