After the disappointment of the US Open I went off to Paris to play in the Alstom Open de France and had a great week.

I played well and hit it as good as I have done all year, and if I’d holed any putts at all I probably should have won by a few! I had a good charge at it on the Sunday and finished one shot outside the play-off so it was a very positive week. It was so nice to come back to Europe and play well and get myself up the Race to Dubai rankings and up to 9th in the world.

After France I went to Adare Manor to play in the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am which was a good fun couple of days. It was great to hang out with no pressure and not have to play well and enjoy the company of my amateur partners. JP treats everyone so well that week and they raise massive amounts of money for charity so it’s a really worthwhile event. I got to meet a few famous faces, the dinner on the Tuesday night was awesome and Westlife were performing which everyone really enjoyed.

Darren did great to win at Adare and that obviously gave him confidence going in to the Barclays at Loch Lomond and although he didn’t win, he did snatch the last available spot into the Open Championship, so that was great to see.

I went to St Andrews on Friday and Saturday and got a couple rounds in there before the mad rush which I was very pleased about. I did everything I need to – got my lines off tees and course strategy sorted out. I then came back to Ireland and practised yesterday – I’ve been doing plenty of practice with Michael, especially on my wedge play because that’s really important around St Andrews.

I’m off to Royal County Down this evening to get a bit more practice in and then I’m heading over to Scotland tomorrow afternoon for the big week of the year.

I’ll report in again next week. Rory.