Keeping an Open mind

What can I add? They raised phenomenal funds which go to the local Limerick charities and that’s good because much of the money was raised by the people of the city and county and it’s great that it goes back there.

They could run a book on how much will be raised and no doubt all will be revealed in due course. Whatever it is, it's a fantastic achievement and fair play to JP and his friends for doing it and also to the people of Limerick.

They are obviously very proud of JP and weren't going to let him down. They turned out in amazing numbers, something like 50,000 over the two days, and it was only right that the weather was on its best behaviour, especially on the first afternoon. Many people were surprised that I signed so many autographs I had used up nearly three pens by the end of the second day but it's not a problem for me. It was a fun event, it was all for charity and it was a pleasure to be part of it.

True, there was also a competitive element to the pro-am and it became all the more so for me when I realised I might be able to beat Trevor Immelman's course record on the second day.

From a golfing perspective, it was all I thought of over the closing holes and even though I got lucky when holing a chip on the fly for an eagle at the 12th, my penultimate hole, which got to me to nine under, it was a good feeling.

Nine under for 18 holes and 14 for 36 over a course like Adare Manor had to put you in the right frame of mind going into this week! I'll never forget how the people ringed the 13th green, it was the kind of thing you only have at a Major, and there was another awesome sight around the 18th green. It had a kind of amphitheatre effect and I got a marvellous reception from the massive crowd as JP presented me with my two magnificent Waterford Crystal trophies.

I said at the time that Limerick deserved a Tour event, a fully fledged four round tournament, and I meant it. They were wonderful and the banquet was an awesome occasion. The marquee was out of this world, it must have been close to the size of a football pitch, and the decorations were fabulous. JP spoke of how he had been "dreading" having to make his three-minute speech for a long time but as usual it was no trouble to him.

After those two days of great fun, it was back to reality and hard work. Bob Rotella arrived to help my preparations for St Andrews and we had a busy few days re-accustoming to links golf by playing great courses like the European Club and

Portmarnock.

My thanks to both and hopefully I can repay them by challenging for the Open later this week!

I love St Andrew's, both the golf course and the tradition of the place, and have had my good days as well as my disappointments over the Old Course.

I felt Darren, Paul and myself comprised a team good enough to win the Dunhill Cup but Ernie and Retief got in our way a few times but more recently I had the distinction of winning the Dunhill Links trophy, beating Eduardo Romero in a play-off.

The course is now a lot longer than the last time we were there with the 14th particularly difficult but as always the scoring will be dictated by the wind. If there's none, we'll burn it up, if the wind blows, par will be pretty good. But that's nothing new and we'll be ready for any eventuality.