Happy to finish on a high

That was a nice way to finish the Aberdeen Asset management Scottish Open week with a six-under 66. Much of the field had not finished, leaders had not even started when I finished, so we will get to know the winner later.

Personally, there are lots of positives from this week. I hit it nicely today, but most important takeaway for me from this week was yesterday (third day) when the conditions were tough – wet and windy. We are likely to get those conditions next week at Birkdale and the news coming in is that it will be wet and cold and the wind is going to be up. So, even though I did not get a good score in, it was good to play in those conditions.

Today (the final day), I hit it freely. I tried to hit as many different kinds of shots as possible. I wouldn’t normally hit many of those shots in a tournament, but I needed to test myself out for next week. It was in some ways like a Mock-exam, like we used to have before our Pre-Boards in school when we were young. I tried everything like low cuts, high cuts, fades, draws and punches and whatever shots I have. I wanted to try them all in competition.

So having done that on a good scoring day and also scored well, I am feeling very good going into the next week.

It was also nice to be paired with Adam (Scott). He and I have been good friends since the President’s Cup even though we have not played much together since. He is one of the guys I look up to and he has the prettiest swing.

So having him as a playing partner on a nice sunny warm day was fun. We chatted and exchanged notes, so it was great. As for the play itself, I had some nice birdies, a long one on fourth from about 25 feet. Rest were much shorter. The nice thing was I got my birdies in pairs and that is always great fun.

I gave away a silly shot on 12. I had 94 yards to the flag and I hit a bad shot. But the learning is that now I would use a different club. So as I said I hit some shots that I would normally not hit in a competition.

I surely left 3-4 shots out there. On the 18th if the ball had been two feet to the left it would have been on the green, instead it rolled into the water. Still I got a par that was nice.

So, two goods day and two bad days, but I am leaving Scottish Open with positive feelings. And I cannot wait to get to Birkdale and continue my preparation for my first Major of the year.