Down to sunny Spain for the Madrid Open this week. After a cold and windy week in Scotland last week it feels nice to have some heat in the sun and some dry conditions to play in.
The Dunhill Links Championship was played over 3 fantastic links courses, St Andrews Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. It was a real thrill to play these famous old courses, two of them being on the Open rota. We play so many tournaments and courses throughout the year that you just turn up, map the course and get your strategy and go play. It was a really nice change to stand back and appreciate the quality of those courses, remember the holes you have seen on TV so often, and even take the odd photo during the practice rounds. Standing on the 1st and 18th holes at St Andrews is like a dream come true.
The format is a bit different in that you are paired with an amateur for the first three rounds, then the field is cut to top 65 pros and top 20 teams. I was paired with legendary All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick. We had a great few days but unfortunately our golf wasn’t too great as a team. Sean played some fantastic golf though, especially on the first day at St Andrews, making two nett eagles. My golf was very disappointing, again struggling with the putter which seemed to affect the rest of my game as the week went on. From Scotland is was a seven hour car ride home to London and then a flight the next day to Madrid. I am looking forward to playing some much better golf this week.
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Richard Rowntree - 9 Oct 09
Hi Mark, I've folowed you progress with interest and also watch a fair bit of golf on TV I heard on the radio this am that you have struggled with the putter of late. This surprised me a little given I was amazed how strong/confident your putting was a year ago. For what it is worth I have noticed that whereas a few yrs ago about the only golfer to keep his head absolutely still was tiger..and look at his results. Recently I've notcied a good number of players endeavouring to keep there head still even until theball is in the hole with some very good outcomes. The most noticebale recent exampl is Richie Ramsay who has always been good tee to green but struggled with the putter. The Dunhill was the first time I've seen him keep his head still until the ball was in the hole and what an improvement! The whole Eng team seem to be onto this probably led by D.Howell who has alweays been a good putter and always keeps his head still. Others - Casey, R.Fisher, Dinwiddie, Dyson,Horsey, C.Wood, Rose. If only Westwood and Donald would try it they'd clean up. Hope this of some help and will look fwd to seeing you in the van on Sunday!