Missed opportunites and a missed cut

THE 136th Open Championship will long be remembered as one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of the game and, with it being my Open and Major debut, the Carnoustie experience is not one I will forget in a hurry.

Going into the championship I was pretty confident ­ as you'll have read last month I played very well to qualify at Sunningdale and consolidated that with a top-20 finish at Loch Lomond. I played very solidly all week in the Scottish Open, shooting 69s on the first three days but couldn't quite get anything going on the Sunday as Gregory Havret held on for a superb victory. But it was another decent cheque and, more importantly, another nice little boost to the confidence.

The first three days at Carnoustie were spent practising and trying to formulate a plan. It didn't seem like there was an awful lot of rough so I could take the driver a lot of the time as I'm pretty long but reasonably straight. The strategy was to attack the golf course. My preparations were also made playing the three practice rounds with just my coach, Kristian, and caddie, Adam.

Playing with my mates I've found you can be chatting away and miss something like a bunker or a break on the green, on my own I find I can take more of the course in and concentrate a bit better. To acquaint myself with the Angus links I played the back nine on Monday, the front nine on Tuesday and the first and last three on the following day when the weather was a bit grim.

The draw fell kindly to me with a 12.03 tee off on the Thursday and 6.52am on the second day. I wasn't too sure what to expect. On the one hand I had come through the qualifying but on the other I had performed quite nicely on the European Tour. I was delighted to get Mark Calcavecchia, a former Open champion, and South African Order of Merit winner Charl Schwartzel.

Come Thursday I wasn't too nervous. Again, the experience of the past couple of years helped me enormously and though I knew it would be a little different to normal I felt pretty calm and relaxed. I hit a good two iron down the 1st fairway and was underway without any alarms.

The plan to attack the course worked really well over the front nine and I left myself with some excellent opportunities which, unfortunately, I was unable to capitalise on. After 11 holes I was one-under but could easily have been four or five and I then got punished for not taking advantage of my good play and ran up two double-bogeys to finish on three-over which was really, really disappointing.

Getting up at 4.30am is not something I particularly enjoy but, nevertheless, I made a great start on Friday with a birdie at the 1st. Chances again went begging at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th and a missed fairway and subsequent bogey at the 5th, and three-putt par at the 6th, left me thinking it wasn't going to be my week.

However, I picked up a shot at the 7th, had a really good up-and-down at the 10th and sent another approach close at the 11th. A putt to move back to plus one slipped by and a second double at the 12th quickly followed. I struck the ball well over the last few holes but the putts were staying out and seven-over proved to be three shots too many.

A missed cut wasn't the plan but the experience was sensational. The crowds may not have been as big as in previous years, particularly over the first two days, but they were still great and being applauded on to every tee and green in the Open Championship is something special.

I watched a bit of it on the sofa on Sunday and it was all pretty spectacular. I would maybe have liked to have seen Garcia win it but to have two Europeans fight it out was great for European golf. After missing out on the weekend in Scotland it was great to get back in action straightaway at the Deutsche Bank in Germany and even better to record a top-15 finish.

The first two days I actually played pretty badly and stood on the 4th tee on the Friday at three-over for the day, level
overall, and in danger of missing another cut. But I managed to knuckle down and birdie the next three holes and, after
working on the range at the end of the round, found something that worked.

The Saturday started like a dream with three birdies and an eagle in the first six holes and in the end it was a bit of a shame to shoot 68. The Sunday was another fast start, with four birdies in the first seven, but that was as far forward as I got and mixed three bogeys with three birdies for another 68.

Those bogeys may have cost me but, as my caddie said, we would have taken a share of 11th spot when we were standing on that 4th tee on the Friday. It is good to be hard on yourself but Gut Kaden was still quite satisfying.

Ross is currently 66th on the Order of Merit - Follow his progress on tour this month at:
Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles
European Masters
Mercedes-Benz Championship
British Masters