Since my last blog we had the Lough Erne Challenge which was myself and Darren versus Padraig and Shane – and me and Darren won so that was great! The day itself was spoiled a bit by the weather but the crowds were great and they really got into the spirit of the whole thing and the day was a great success. It was the first time that Darren and Shane had seen the resort as whole and they were really impressed with the whole set up. The course was in seriously good condition and the green surfaces were probably some of the best that I’ve putted on all year. I was very proud to show it off to them in all... MORE »

The Open Championship at St Andrews started off in the best way possible for me with a 63 in round one and after that I thought I had a really good chance to kick on and take the tournament by the scruff of the neck. The conditions on Friday didn’t really let me do that and I just didn’t handle them as well as I probably could have done. I hadn’t played in wind like that for a while and it was really tough going.

However, I was really happy with the way I handled things over the weekend and to come back and shoot a couple of scores in the 60’s  to finish in a tied for 3rd wasn’t what... MORE »

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... MORE »

Firstly, a huge well done to my mate Gmac for lifting his first major at the US Open – a great result for Europe and Northern Ireland.

From my own point of view it wasn’t a great week. My three week stretch started off quite well at The Memorial and then played ok for the first couple of days in Memphis and sort of struggled over the weekend there and by the time I got up to Pebble Beach my game had got a little bit worse.  I wasn’t completely in control of my ball and if you’re not feeling confident going into the US Open then you’re not going to do that great. It’s probably the toughest tournament of the... MORE »

You really do have to be at Pebble Beach to see just how spectacular this place is.  I’ve played it on video games and seen footage on television, but there’s nothing like the real thing.   And it’s definitely easier on video.

It’s a great set up.   If you miss the fairway by a little bit and you have a chance to reach the green, but miss it by a little bit more and you’re going to struggle.  It’s got firmer as the week’s progressed so it look like it's going to be a pretty firm golf course all week.   Anybody will have to hit it really well around here if you want to score.

The main thing around any U.S. Open is... MORE »

It was a good week at the Memorial at Muirfield Village but the weather delays got to be a bit of a pain – I think I spent thirteen hours at the golf course on Saturday!

From tee to green I played really well, but having said that I shot five under over the weekend and I felt that I could have been ten or twelve under for the weekend as I hit the ball great. It was a little frustrating for me on the Sunday as I couldn’t really get the putter going.

Anyway, I finished in a tie for 10th which is a nice way to start this three week stretch of tournaments in America.

During the week I spent quite... MORE »

I’ve not spoken to you since before playing the BMW PGA Championship so here goes.

Everyone talked about the course changes and stuff and to be honest I thought there were a few things that were a little too severe that took away from the tournament a bit because the excitement wasn’t there like it had been in the previous years. Spectators don’t really like seeing bogeys all over the place and players struggling to make pars – they like to see birdies and eagles!

From a playing point of view I felt that I played ok but I just really get anything out of it. I always felt restricted on what I could do and had to hit Five and Three... MORE »

Hi everyone, I’ve not done a blog since before The Players at Sawgrass so I guess that’s where I’ll start.

I really tried to focus on the week and not get distracted by my win at Quail Hollow. I played ok in the tournament but Sawgrass isn’t really a course that suits me off the tee, as a longer hitter I found myself hitting across a lot of fairways and struggled to see my landing areas – so the tee shots were a bit of a tricky one. I thought that at two under it was a really low cut – I shot one over so missed the cut, which was disappointing, but it was nice to get home.

On my return... MORE »

Hi everyone and a big thank you for all the congratulatory and birthday messages you’ve sent me, it was totally overwhelming. It certainly was the most amazing weekend I’ve had for a long time.

I felt like I was playing pretty well going into the Quail Hollow Championship but I had to work hard to make the cut. I bogeyed my 14th and 15th holes in the second round get to three over for the tournament and we knew that the cut was going to one over,  so I knew I had to play the next three holes in two under to make the cut. I eagled my 16th hole (the 7th) and made par at the last two holes so... MORE »

I feel as if my game’s coming along and I’m starting to hit the ball really well and I went into the Shell Houston Open pretty hopeful , where I felt I played pretty well – I just didn’t take my opportunities when they arose.  So after having only three birdies in two days I missed the cut by one.  It was pretty boring golf – just a lot of pars and not a lot else happening but I did starting hitting it well that week so that was a good positive for me.

At the Masters, even after the missed cut in Houston, I went into the event in a good frame of mind knowing that I was hitting it... MORE »

The Honda Classic and WGC CA Championship at Doral weren’t my best couple of weeks – I struggled a bit with my swing and wasn’t really hitting it great. I felt I did quite well to finish 40th at the Honda, because it could have been a lot worse. At Doral I had a bad first day and couldn’t really get myself back into the tournament after that, so all in all a couple of pretty disappointing weeks.

After Doral I went up to Augusta for three days with my friends Harry Diamond and Stephen Sweeney and we played a few rounds of golf up there which was great. I felt a bit flat after those two weeks so playing round... MORE »

The WGC Accenture Match Play is always a bit of a funny week especially on the course at Dove Mountain where the greens are hard, fast and very undulating and I found it hard to get the ball close – I felt I was hitting good shots and they were going to 25 and 30 feet every time and it’s very hard to make birdies from that distance. I really felt that my good shots weren’t getting rewarded. I played ok and was pleased to come back from four down in my match against Kevin Na and I had my chances against Olly Wilson but didn’t really take them. Match play can be very fickle, especially over eighteen holes and I... MORE »

Dubai was a good week and I must admit that it was quite a nice feeling to be defending champion, especially in a place which I really love. I started well with a 68 on the first day and got myself into the tournament right away and then I struggled over the weekend, and left Dubai on Sunday evening feeling pretty disappointed. I felt that I didn’t really put enough pressure on the leaders on Sunday at the start of the round and ended up in 6th place. The last day was really tough and even the leaders were even par and I shot one over so in comparison it wasn’t that bad but for some reason I just couldn’t... MORE »

It was a great start to the season in Abu Dhabi, obviously after six weeks at home and not really getting to hit many golf balls I didn’t really know what to expect. I got off to a great start shooting 66 in the first round and from there it was really solid golf – four rounds in the 60’s and to get myself into contention in the first week playing again was a big positive. I felt I could have done a little more to try and win it but the guys got off to such a fast start on Sunday and I didn’t – I left it a little late and finished well. After I’d finished I reckoned... MORE »

Happy New Year Everyone! We had a great Christmas and one of the best things about it was not having to think about golf – I was home and seeing my friends and family and just completely chilling out and not doing a great deal.

We had a party at the house on Christmas Eve when we had a lot of people round which was good fun. On Christmas Day morning we went over to see Mum’s side of the family as she has loads of brothers and sisters and my cousins and then we called into Holywood Golf Club for an hour to see everyone up there. We had a lovely Christmas dinner that my Mum, her sister Leanne and... MORE »

Hi there everyone from a very cold and snowy Northern Ireland – which I have to say is a bit of fun!

I’ve just been chilling out at home since my return from South Africa and haven’t touched a club in two weeks so I’m having a really good break which has given me plenty of time to get all my Christmas shopping done which is now complete and all packed and wrapped.

I’ve had a couple of nights out recently and on Saturday bumped into Darren Clarke in Café Vaudeville in Belfast so we had a bit of a catch up and a few drinks – it was quite funny bumping into him like that as he’s never usually there with... MORE »

It was really disappointing having to withdraw from the Nedbank World Challenge after two rounds of the tournament – I think I picked something up on the way from China to South Africa and I was really struggling all week. I didn’t have much energy at all and I think it was a flu virus and with that I got really dehydrated and with the heat at Sun City it certainly made things very difficult indeed. The straw that broke the Camel’s back was getting food poisoning on the Friday night! I really wanted to do well in the event as it was my last one of the season so I was really fed up.

Anyway I was really glad to... MORE »

Myself and Gmac were obviously disappointed that we didn’t win at Mission Hills but we played great together and the main thing was that we really enjoyed ourselves. It would have been fantastic to win but we both played pretty average on the last day and still had a good chance but it just wasn’t meant to be.  .

The Molinari brothers played great on the Sunday, especially Francesco who holed a couple of really big putts on twelve and thirteen and that was probably the difference. I missed a little one on ten and we had a few more chances but just weren’t able to convert them. I’m sure myself and Graeme will have plenty more chances in the future... MORE »

I was heading into last week in pole position in the Race To Dubai and Lee Westwood had to play the best golf of his life to beat me, which is very encouraging for me to know that he had to do it when he needed to and he certainly did! It was another third place finish for me but I did finish miles behind him but as I’ve said, on the day he deserved it and he played unbelievable golf during those four days and there’s not much I could have done about it. It’s not that I laid down and gave it to him – I still put in a good performance which wasn’t quite good enough but... MORE »

Obviously my trip with Garby to Burger King at Shanghai airport worked a treat as I continued my good form in Hong Kong last week!  Hong Kong is one of the events that I really look forward to during the year – I love the place, love the course, love where we stay – right in the middle of the city, and there’s just so much to do there at night – great restaurants and brilliant shops. Whenever you get to a place that you really enjoy going to, as well as the golf course, you always seem to do pretty well and that was definitely the case for me last week.

One evening we went to the horse racing at Happy... MORE »

I’m writing this at Shanghai Airport where my flight to Hong Kong has been delayed for we’re not quite sure how long – so myself and Garby (Ian Garbutt ex tour pro now works for ISM) have just been filling in some time and our stomachs in the local burger restaurant. Naughty but nice!

I did a company day for Jumeirah today at Shanghai Grand City Golf Club. Jumeirah are opening a fantastic new hotel in Shanghai early next year so they just invited some key clients and media people along to play a few holes and we all had a really good day.

I had a pretty slow start... MORE »

At the Volvo World Match Play Championship the weather was great, the hotel was great – in fact the Finca Cortesin was probably one of the best hotels I’ve stayed in all year. It’s in between Estepona and Sotogrande and the hotel and the clubhouse were all in one place and everything was really close together with fantastic practice facilities. The golf course was good and the greens were the best I’ve putted on in ages, especially with having just a sixteen man field they didn’t get chewed up by spike marks at all.

The course was very hilly and it would be a struggle to walk round – there were some holes that were a fair distance apart, like from... MORE »

Portugal was a fairly disappointing week for me as I got passed in the Race to Dubai by my good friend Lee Westwood!

As much as I didn’t want Lee to win I was actually glad to see him win because it’s been a long time coming and it’s been two years since his last win and it was only a matter of time before he won again. I was reading in the paper this morning that since his last win he’s 26 top tens, 3 play-off defeats and finished 3rd three times so that’s pretty impressive stats. So if it was any other point in the season I’d be really happy for him to win but I’m still happy for... MORE »

It was just one of those days today - I played alright and got off to a really good start but had three bogeys on the back nine which really cost me but apart from that I played really well again and I can't complain - it was another good week. So a big well done to Simon Dyson who shot 66 in the last round to claim the title - when you do that you deserve to win.

However! It's not all bad news - by finishing tied 2nd I managed to hoist myself up to number one spot in the Race to Dubai which is brilliant and I'm really happy about that. Actually I thought I had to finish 2nd on... MORE »

We made the cut! And we both made the cut! What an aweome day........... it'll be just fantastic to play with Dad tomorrow on his 50th birthday round the Old Course at St Andrews - some birthday he's going to have, in the last group out with Luke Donald as well.

Funnily enough I was playing with Luke two years ago when I finished with two birdies to make my tour card so I've got good memories of playing with him. I like the Old Course and have scored well there before so there's no reason why I can't go out and shoot another 65 tomorrow and clinch that title.

The... MORE »

You probably know that Saturday's play has been abandoned so I haven't got anything to report! So me and Dad will rest up for tomorrow morning and hope that the wind has died down - it's blowing a hooley up here!

Friday was absolsutely awesome on the Old Course. I've always liked the course and I've never really shot a bad score there and today was the best score I've done so far. Dad had another good day - he came in on a couple of holes - started off the best way he could with a birdie on the first and birdied seven as well and I think through... MORE »

We actually got off to quite a slow start at Carnoustie today, I was one over through my first four holes and the team was one over as well but I made a birdie on the fourteenth and Dad made a birdie net eagle so that helped the cause somewhat. From there on we played some good golf, Dad played some really good shots and as he's only getting one shot it's difficult, but I felt that six under in the team event was really good today. He made another birdie on the first which was our tenth but I do think he got a little tired towards the... MORE »

We played at 10.30am at St Andrews this morning and the weather was definitely better than yesterday! We played with Johan Cruyff and Maarten Lafeber which was really good fun. I actually played my Dad in a match today and gave him three shots a side so six overall and beat him 2 and 1 which was great. But it has to be said that he's hitting it good and playing really well and we're feeling pretty confident for the week and I'm still hoping he hasn't peaked too early!!

I did my press conference at 4pm and got a lot of questions about the Ryder Cup and stuff which was ok and then I mooched off to St Andrews and got... MORE »

Well..... Tuesday started very early for me as I had to carry on with the Titleist commercial filming, without time for breakfast I might add! Then I'd arranged to meet my Dad, Harry and JP at Kingsbarns at 11.00am. I duly arrived went into the clubhouse, had a cup of tea, looked at the rain coming down sideways and left again! So no actual golf was played today!

However, we had a bit of lunch at St Andrews and then a friend of mine who works there opened a bay at the driving range for me and Dad, sorted us out some Pro V1's so we had a good old practice in the dry whilst everyone else was out on the... MORE »

It was a really great week playing in the Vivendi Trophy over in Paris and I really enjoyed it. We had a little bit of a weakened side but that was probably a good thing because the guys that were there really wanted to play and if some of the other guys had shown up that were maybe higher up in the rankings may have just shown up to play and not been as keen as us!

Paul McGinley was a fantastic captain and I think we all got on really well and that’s why we did great as a team. In the team format we absolutely hammered the... MORE »

Hi folks, well a lot’s been going on since my last blog so here’s what I’ve been up to. Myself and the whole family flew from Belfast by private jet to Switzerland so that was a great start to the week at Crans which is on of my favourite places of all time and we all had some fun over there as well as the golf. The tournament was pretty good but I had three bad holes on the Friday afternoon but came back well – I had a good first day and a good last day which pulled me up to 7th which was a good performance coming off a two week break. Alex Noren played fantastic that week... MORE »

I went into the US PGA at Hazeltine with mixed feelings and not high expectations as I hadn’t played well the week before and was struggling on the practice days and stuff but something clicked during the practice round on the Wednesday and I was able to take it from there on to the course for the tournament and I was pretty happy about that. It was nice to get myself back into contention as I hadn’t been on a leaderboard for a while so it was good to be back up there and feeling it again so it was really good.

On the whole I’ve felt that I’ve played well in the majors this year without really getting into contention... MORE »

Have had a bit of rest now after the Open Championshuip up at Turnberry where it really blew for the last three days of the tournament and I just probably wasn't as prepared as I should have been for the wind and maybe next year I'll alter my pre-Open preparation and get some links golf in before St Andrews.

We stayed near to the course at Turnberry and ISM had booked a house so we went there every night for dinner and the lady chef cooked for us like royalty all week! It was fun really because all the ISM players - and there were fifteen of us there  - popped in most nights either for some food or a chat... MORE »

Hi there everyone - just thought I'd give you an update before starting the Open Championship at Turnberry.

Before the Scottish Open I took a trip to Wimbledon, I did an interview for Five Live and they gave us a couple of  really good seats for Centre Court which were just brilliant. We watched Federer play Soderling and also the first couple of set of Andy Murray's game under the roof which was really cool. It was great to see Wimbledon - it's so much bigger than I thought it would be - totally massive! I ate a lot of Strawberries and a lot of cream so it was a really good day!

At the Barclays Scottish Open last week I struggled... MORE »

The US Open was just fantastic, I didn't do anything really really well but I played very solidly and it was my first top ten in a Major so I'm very pleased about that. The weather over at Bethpage was just shocking. It was such a long week which took until Monday to conclude - you didn't know when you were going to play, you didn't know how many holes you were going to play and stuff like that. Having said that the USGA did a really good job of  keeping us all informed and did an amazing job of making the golf course ready to play because there was so much rain. The support I received at Bethpage was... MORE »

I think we'll start with the BMW PGA Championship at  Wentworth where I thought I played very well. I struggled on the first day with trusting my shots and committing to them but as the week went on I found it easier to do that, and I was able to hit some really good shots and shooting 65 on the Saturday was my best score round Wentworth by a long way and I played really well. That 65 really put me in contention for the last day but I just couldn't really get anything going and I played with Ross Fisher who shot 64 and even if I had played really well I still probably wouldn't have won so to... MORE »

Massive congratulation to my old foursomes partner Shane Lowry for winning The 3 Irish Open in such fine style - what a win and what a fairytale. In fact he's probably a bigger celebrity in Ireland than me right now! To be leading after two rounds and sleep on that lead for two nights and not fall away was just incredible. I stayed around after I'd finished and watched beside the 18th green, where the atmosphere was just electric even though the rain still continued to pour as it had done most of the week.

I even managed to wriggle my through the crowd after he'd sunk that final putt and... MORE »

There's no better place to start my latest blog than the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. We arrived there at about 6pm and saw about 3 or 4 of the under cards which was great and then obviously the main event - Ricky versus Manny. Before it started all the celebs started pouring in - I was sitting beside Joe Cole and a couple of rows in front of us were Mariah Carey, Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, Jayzee and P Diddy so we had really good seats for the occasion.

I have to say that the fight, although it only lasted about six minutes, had the most incredible atmosphere that I have ever experienced in my life. It was just electric... MORE »

It was great to get home from America and I've been having a busy time since returning. Harbour Town was a beautiful place and the course was great but I just felt a little bit flat and tired as it was the week after the Masters. The thing about the course is that you don't really hit driver but I was in the sort of mood to just hit driver anyway and see where it went, JP was trying to persuade me to hit the 3 iron but I just hit the driver anyway which got me into a few spots of trouble now and then.

I was very excited to win the European Tour Shot of the Month for March... MORE »

After Houston I shared a jet (very nice it was too!) with Ernie Els and we got down to Augusta on the Sunday night and I met up with Mum, Dad and Holly. I went up to the course at about 9am on the Monday morning with Dad and the drive up Magnolia Lane was pretty cool. I played my first practice round - just nine holes - with Oliver Wilson and past Masters champion Mike Weir so that was a nice start to the proceedings.

It was a pretty good week but I didn't finish as well as I wanted to but it was another top twenty finish which wasn't too bad but I felt I played well enough to... MORE »

Had a great couple of weeks off and then it was back to work again. On the way to Houston I stopped off at Augusta which was pretty exciting and played a practice round with my coach Michael Bannon and a couple of Augusta National members, Mike Malone and John Harris. John has set the pin positions at the Masters for the past 15 years so he obviously knows where all the pins will be placed and he had me putting to all different spots on the greens so that was really helpful. It was just great to get a good look around the place so I'll know it a little better before I get there tomorrow for the start of... MORE »

Since I got back from Doral to be honest I haven't done that much of any note apart from resting up a bit as I found it quite full-on in the States and it was just great to get back home.  I've had a couple of nights out with my mates and of course we went out celebrating St Patrick's Day and went to the School's Cup Rugby Final which was at Ravenhill so that was a fun day.

I've been doing a bit of practice and had Paul Hurrion, who specialises in putting, over on Thursday so we did a good days work on that. Actually, I was supposed to get up at 8am today and play golf but looked out... MORE »

I arrived on the Thursday before the Accenture Match Play and spent the Friday at the Titleist Performance Institute in California and worked with Bob Vokey on my wedges got a new wedge set up - I changed the loft of my pitching wedge from 48 to 46 and put a little more bounce on it and I changed the bounce on my 52 degree from 8 degrees to 12 degrees and it makes the ball go a bit further as the club doesn't dig into the turf as much so it doesn't give it as much spin. Then I tested the new Titleist Pro V1X which I have to say is the best ball I've ever played, even last... MORE »

Getting home from Dubai was a bit of an adventure due to the snow at Heathrow so we had to make our way up to Manchester and eventually got home on the Monday evening and had all my friends and family round and we had a great night celebrating.

I did a Media day on the Tuesday with Martin Hardy, ISM's  media wizard who came over to Ireland and we did two hours at Holywood Golf Club attending to the worlds media which was great and we some interviews and some photos. I didn't think I would have got such a big reception when I got home - there was a lot of  press and photographers at the golf club when I went... MORE »

Of all the places to have my maiden win this would have been one of my first choices because I love Dubai, my Mum and Dad were there, my sponsors Jumeirah are based in Dubai and I've made so many friends there too.

It's a fantastic feeling to have won wire to wire - I played well, I putted well and led from start to finish which I thought was pretty good - I had the chance  in Switzerland but it didn't work out so it was great to do it here. Someone asked me how I felt when the putt went in the hole - I think I said excited, elated, jubilant, relief, happiness, joy and I think they were... MORE »

First of all a very Happy New Year to all of you and hope you had a great Christmas, I certainly did! I got home from South Africa on the 23rd December and then it was off to do some serious Christmas shopping in Belfast which was absolutely jammed with people doing their last minute stuff, as was I!

We had Christmas Dinner at Mum and Dad's house which was great, Mum was slightly better after her shoulder problems but me and Dad did the lifting of all the heavy stuff out of the oven!

We went to a few parties on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve and had a few good nights out. Twelve of us had a box at... MORE »

My first visit to South Africa started at the very impressive Leopard Creek Golf Club adjacent to the Kruger Park in the province of Mpumulanga. I played in the Pro-Am with Fabio Capello the England Football Manager - he was a really nice man and good company - his English was better than I expected but his golf was definitely worse than his English! Of course I shared my views with him on the England team but I don't really think my input would help matters!

I went into the Kruger Park to do an interview with Golf Punk Magazine and we had a bit of a Game Drive at the same time and saw Elephant, White Rhino, Giraffe, Zebra, Cape... MORE »

After completing my first year on the European Tour I feel as if I have made a lot of progress in what's been a great learning curve for me. I have learnt a lot of new things, seen a lot of new places and experienced many different cultures. I'm still adjusting to living out of a suitcase and remembering to get my laundry done! I'm really enjoying life on Tour and have played really well in some parts and not so well in others.

I've improved my world ranking position by 160 places, currently being 79th, and finished inside the top 40 of the European Tour Order of Merit. I've really achieved the goals I set for myself at the beginning... MORE »

I know most of you reading this are golf fans but I'm going to start by talking about one of my passions - football.

As a lifelong Manchester United fan, playing with Sir Bobby Charlton at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last week was an unbelievable experience. He was a player at the club before my time but he is still actively involved so he was able to give me a great insight into the current players and how the club works. It was really interesting to hear it all first hand.

He told me that in the old first division when he was a player, on average two players got their legs broken or picked up pretty serious injuries every week... MORE »

It's exactly one year since Rory McIlroy turned professional and signed with International Sports Management and what a year it's been for the Northern Ireland teenager. Here Rory reflects on his first year as a pro.

'If someone had told me a year ago that I'd be in the position I'm in today, I would definitely have taken that. It's been a wonderful first year on the European Tour for me and one I'm sure I'll always remember.

I had a great start to my career, making the cut in my first tournament as a professional at the Quinn Insurance British Masters and then going on to finish third at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. I secured my Tour card in my... MORE »

There are so many firsts for me at the moment, first year on the main European Tour, first time visiting new countries, my first website. Playing in the European Tour's flagship event at Wentworth a few weeks ago was another first for me, as was playing the new Twenty Ten course at the Celtic Manor in Wales - although that was a first for most of the guys on the Tour as the 2010 Ryder Cup course has only recently been unveiled.

I was disappointed to miss the cut in Wentworth. I generally played well and my tee to green shots were good, but I found the greens on the course difficult to get used to. I have more experience of... MORE »

Firstly, hello to everyone who is reading this and thanks for visiting my site.

Well, I'm playing my first Irish Open as a pro this week. I'm really looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd and also having my friends and family along to cheer me on. Hopefully I can continue the trend of Irish winners on tour.  Before Ireland, I spent a couple of weeks in the Far East playing both the European Tour and Japanese Tour.

First up was the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. It was my first time visiting China, and I thought it was pretty cool. It's definitely a lot busier than back home though, the roads are crowded and we had a few... MORE »