As you can imagine, it was a bit of a quick turnaround for us getting from Edinburgh down to the Kent Coast in order to play this week’s Open Championship…but you won’t hear any complaints from me – there are definitely worse problems to have!
It goes without saying that I am also incredibly happy to have qualified to play in my first ever Open Championship – especially since it’s being held at Royal St George’s where I already have so many brilliant amateur memories!

After missing the cut in Ireland ten days ago I have to admit that I was feeling pretty deflated about my game but a solid amount of reflection during the weekend off helped me get some perspective and it was great to have the bubble rules relaxed in Scotland for a week to allow us a couple of extra freedoms as well as having my strength coach Fabien back and working with us again too!

Im taking a lot of strength going into this week knowing that almost all the elements of my game felt in great shape playing at Renaissance – and that includes my mental fortitude too. Congratulations to Min Woo Lee on the win though – he was a tough competitor to beat on Sunday and thanks to all of you at home for the messages of support too. It means a huge amount to me!

Onto this week and its the 15th time that Royal St Georges will be hosting this Major Championship now and by all accounts its one of the toughest tests on the Open rota! First and foremost, this is probably down to the fact that there are almost no flat lies on the fairway! Undulations are consistent across the fairways and greens this week meaning that, at best, you’ve got an un-even lie and at worst, the ball is taking a kick off the ground in a very unpredictable direction! The latter of these being the worst case scenario since it’s nearly impossible to play from the rough this week too (it’s thick, lush and above knee high in lots of places out there!). As a matter of fact, there has been so much rain here in recent weeks that it’s probably going to be playing softer than the R&A were hoping for…but on the other hand, that makes the rough all that bit extra punishing too!

One other thing to note this week is that this course has maximum exposure to the elements. There is genuinely only one single tree on the entire course to provide any form of protection against the wind and rain! That means that if the wind picks up over the course of the next few days then it will be a true classical links test at its very best!

As mentioned previously, I have actually already had the honour of playing quite a few amateur events at Royal St George’s but I have a feeling this week is going to be a whole different ball game and I can’t wait to tee it up tomorrow in front of the 32,000 spectators that are expected to be on site over the course of the week! What an amazing atmosphere it’s going to create combined with the four days of sunshine that has been projected for us to enjoy too!

Early start tomorrow teeing off at 7.41am alongside Viktor Hovland and Ryan Palmer. Ready to get this thing started!