My Portmarnock priorities

IT was a very frustrating Open Championship for me. I didn’t bring my A game to Royal St George’s and I told the press lads that, but the general feeling still was it would be all right on the day.

I suppose I hoped for the same but deep down I knew things didn't work like that on such a severe and difficult golf course and in such a big event. I knew the mistakes would come, and they did, so I never got into the hunt at all.

Can I cure what's wrong between the Open and the start of the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock on Thursday? Difficult, very difficult. I know where the problems lie. I'm just not swinging the club the way I want, but there's always hope, there really is, and I could yet have a few good days at Portmarnock, a course I shouldn't like because I lost an Irish Close final there to David Higgins at the 20th on what was my last competitive outing there. That was one of the worst experiences I've ever had in golf.

Prior to that, it was the Walker Cup in 1991 so I don't have the happiest memories of the place. In truth, though, I recognise it as a great links and I wasn't surprised to hear Vijay Singh, who played there recently, describe it as the best links in the world. If only I can get my game into proper shape, I will really love it.

I need to maximise everything. When your game is only average, to compete you have to be right on song mentally and scoring wise. I wasn't unduly unlucky at St George's certainly I didn't get more bad breaks than anybody else.

People point out to me that as a professional golfer I should be able to fix something that I have identified is wrong. But fixing that is upsetting something else.

However, it's coming close and I'll be ready for Portmarnock. I'm very happy with a lot of things. The putts may not have necessarily dropped but I still putted well in the Open.

Portmarnock may not be as difficult as Royal St George's but it's a tough golf course. It's fairer than St George's because it doesn't have all those wicked bounces but it is still a tough course.

I've never played there in a strokes competition. I'll be interested to see how the guys get on, how they score over a course that hasn't staged an Irish Open since 1990. That's a long time, and as I saw in a recent game out there they have made a lot of changes, primarily to the first but also there are a lot of subtle things that will test us that little bit more. And, of course, it has been lengthened to over 7,300 yards. Even today, That's a pretty long track.

One of the biggest championships of the year has just ended and people might think this week will mean less to me than in previous years. Nonsense. I'll be well up for it. The only issue I have is preparation.

I obviously need to have my game in shape. There are two things wrong. I'm not swinging the club great and I've been working on my technique too much. If I work on one, it's destructive for the other.

Doing a lot of practice is not doing me a favour in other ways, it's difficult to figure out which one is the ultimate culprit, whether it's my swing or my routine and one is working to the detriment of the other at times.

The more you practice, the worse your focus. When you practice, you're thinking about your swing. When you're focusing, it's just happening. Understand?

Say, for example, you were practising opening up the club face on the way back. How would you expect to be on the course and not be aware where the club face is? Being aware of whether it's right or wrong is going to help you hit destructive golf shots. There's a spot for it and that's where it should be without you having to think about. That's exactly it.

Practising makes you more aware of what you are doing and the more you are aware of what you are doing, the more destructive you can be. You can have the worse swinger in the world and if he swings with confidence, he is going to hit a good shot. You can have the best swinger in the world and if he doesn't swing with confidence, he is going to hit a bad shot.

Obviously, this is my first Irish Open at Portmarnock as a competitor.

I am looking forward to it without getting too stressed about it. The Irish Open would be next in list of priorities after a major so it's a huge week for me.

We keep getting reminded that there hasn't been an Irish winner since John O'Leary back in 1982 although, funnily enough, I think there's more chance of one of us doing it this year simply because we were well and truly distracted by the Open all last week.

We haven't been hyped up about it, we haven't been doing interviews about it. The focus on it has been so limited because of what was happening last week. Occasionally, you try to peak for an event and instead you play well the following week. Hopefully that's the way it will be for me.

As for the absence of Irish winners for the past 21 years, I suppose it is best explained by the fact there is a lot of focus and stress and pressure. We all want to play well.

It's like going to the Open. You try to get your game in form, it's not hit and miss. We turn up at every other event and it is hit and miss. You turn up at an Irish Open or a major, you're trying to be on form and it's that much harder focus-wise. It's not just another week, that's basically it. The Irish Open to the Irish players is not just another week. It's something special.

There are always distractions, it's not like a regular event. There's more to do, more press, more everything. But I don't bother with tickets any more. I used to and it used to drive me up the wall, but now they can all take a running jump into the lake.

Having the Irish Open back at Portmarnock is brilliant, especially for the players. I have frequently stated in this column how much they love coming to this country and they've enjoy all the other Open venues, Mount Juliet, Druids Glen, Ballybunion, Fota Island, the courses I have played in the championship.

But there's no doubt that Portmarnock is its spiritual home and very special indeed. For the players it's big time. Without a doubt, it's the fairest links golf course of them all. That's unusual in itself: the fairways are reasonably flat, the greens similarly so.

But I can't see it being taken to the cleaners with or without a wind. I could actually see the opposite. Reasonably windy conditions could cause high scoring.

I cannot believe that Bernhard Langer shot 19 under there. How could you shoot 19 under at Portmarnock? It's a course that doesn't give up much. In fact, it doesn't give up anything. That was absolutely amazing and won't be repeated. Far from it especially if the wind blows.