There I was at home in Worksop looking forward to a holiday in the sun when a great big black cloud draped itself over my, and a million others, plans.

Iceland literally blew its top. Mount Eyjafjallajokull belched its fury into European airspace and Barbados was out of the question for the Westwoods.

So Laurae and I swapped a week on the beach for two days in London which was very pleasurable, but not exactly what I had in mind when returning from Augusta.

What else have I been doing since my last blog? Watching football – or soccer if you are American – for one thing. As my regular readers will be aware, Nottingham Forest is my team and hopefully we will be in the Premiership next season. Unfortunately, my son Sam hasn’t connected with them in the way I did and he favours Manchester City colours. Don’t ask me why. However, we were both guests of the club for the derby with United and Westwood jnr was not best pleased when another little chap, Paul Scholes, popped up in injury time to head the winner for The Reds.

Two different sized balls have been occupying my attention since the Mount Whatdoyallcallit ash finally dispersed to allow planes to leave England again.
First it was the small golf variety which occupied my thoughts after arriving in Quail Hollow for my comeback after a two-week break. Then it was the basket variation as a few of us went to watch Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats play Orlando Magic.

A good evening was had by all and now it is back to work on a course which has a major championship feel to it. It's an old, traditional course which makes you think a lot and insists that all your game is in good shape. Still, it’s good to be back even though I feel a bit rusty.

I needed a rest after The Masters so at the moment I am not hitting it as good as I would like, but hopefully I’ll sharpen up as the week progresses. The best two players in the world are here and they’ll be in Jacksonville next week so these are two good weeks to test myself against them again.

People have asked if The Masters has occupied my mind much in the last two weeks. Thankfully not. Obviously I was disappointed not to win it because I had a good chance. I felt like I played all right the last day, but Phil Mickelson hit a lot of good shots and won the tournament. It was not like I gave it away. So there is not really any need to dwell on a performance like that. It is something you just use as a positive again and move on and look forward to the next major championship.

That is some time off yet and there are plenty of good tournaments to look forward to before Pebble Beach in June.

So wish me luck…