THE US Open proved to be a frustrating Major for me. I was rained out the first day and then played 36 holes on the Friday. Having got off to a bad start I never really recovered. 

It didn’t help that after finally finishing the first round, within 25 minutes it was off again for the second.

I found the back nine difficult generally, but I hit a couple of bad shots and I knew would have to shoot around level to make the cut. I didn’t manage it, missing out by three. 

It’s a tough course anyway but to play 36 makes it so much harder, physically and mentally.

A lot of people did make the cut on my half of the draw so it wasn’t impossible and I actually played with the eventual winner, So Yeon Ryu, in the first two rounds.

The rough was the hardest part. If you were in there you couldn’t really hit greens and if you missed greens the chipping was difficult.

A lot of the players were complaining about the greens but I didn’t have any problem with them. If you found the fairway it was fine as you could then find the right part of the greens and the putts were easy. If you got on the wrong side of the hole it was more difficult, but that’s fair enough.

The Broadmoor is a brilliant course – I loved it but I just didn’t play well enough.

In the men’s game the US Open has become a lot fairer in recent years, but I would say ours has always never strayed beyond just tough. 

If anything the fairways have become a bit more generous which is probably to do with the rough being so tough. And to have the winning score at three under was just about spot on.

The Koreans have now won three of the last four US Opens. I know people are asking why that is but in short I’ve no idea. Numerically they obviously have a great chance, they almost have as many players on the LPGA Tour as the Americans. 

Without generalising too much, a lot of their players’ mindsets are very strong. They are unflappable, pressure doesn’t seem to get to them. A lot of the players in the men’s game say how strong, mentally, that KJ Choi is. He never really gives too much away and that is true about a lot of their women.

Ryu is much the same.

At one stage at The Broadmoor, she was four over and I was five over. She went on to win her first Major and I went home on an early plane. She holed some lovely putts to get back in it and looked to be a very solid player. It was quite an achievement to come back needing a birdie in the three holes on the Monday to force the play-off but, to be honest, I thought she would. 

If anything, knowing the remaining holes, I thought she might win it outright in regulation play. 

But to do it on the last, the hardest of the three, took some real bottle.

The other Major in the past month saw an incredible effort by Yani Tseng. Yani is always very pleasant to play with and we always have a nice little chat. She is aggressive and very long and that is why she wins so much. 

I can see her dominating for the foreseeable future but you never know if she can match the feats of Annika and Lorena. If I had to rank them right now I would go with Lorena top, Annika second and Yani third but if she keeps her current progress up she could overhaul both of them.