Thoughts on the Open

I don't think I have ever felt better about my game or more confident coming into a Major championship. Far from being a negative, finishing third in the US Open gave me a good feeling particularly since I got into contention there and didn't back off. Any time you experience something like that in golf with all the experiences and emotions it's got to be something you can fall back on in future tournaments, so I'm hoping to do that this week.

What happened certainly didn't wreck my confidence, but it's a fine line between letting it give you confidence and at the same time having only just missed out, not grilling yourself that you have only just missed out and you could have been a major champion. It's just a balancing act with the two emotions.

There has never been a European winner at Royal Birkdale and I can't describe what it would mean to me to be the first particularly as I will have so much home support. Actually it's been a fairly low key build up so far. I played a couple of weeks ago here, and that's the way I wanted to keep it, not get caught up in the hype too much, really.

As for the course, I think its strength is that it's incredibly fair. Most of the fairways are flat. It tests most aspects of your game. I think if you're a good driver of the ball, you can take on a few of the holes. It's obviously had some length added to it, which makes it a demanding test and I'd definitely rank it among the top three. Carnoustie is a big favourite of mine, and then here and Muirfield would be my other two favourites with Lytham very closely behind.

It's only blemish at the moment is the seventeenth green which I think will be eventually dug up and re-worked. I think everybody has accepted that something has gone wrong with it. It's just out of character with the rest of the golf course. It's not to the standard of the rest of the greens. The rest of them are brilliant. It's also a good driver's golf course and I'd consider myself one of them.

As for nerves, I've been asked how a Major compares with the Ryder Cup. At a Ryder Cup you just feel like there are more people relying on you and you're doing it for more people, whereas at Major championship you're just doing it for yourself. That's the difference in the nerves, really.
They're of a similar sort of level, though.

To get into contention I know that I need to putt more consistently over the whole week. I haven't really had a fantastic putting week over the four days when I've needed it. So if I can do that this week, then I feel pretty confident I'll be there or thereabouts coming into the end of the week.

A lot has been made of the fact that Tiger Woods isn't here this week, but I don't really think it will change things too much. Part of professional sport is being fit. It happens in other sports, why not in golf? This is probably the first and most high-profile situation that's ever occurred. I think we should be talking about the tournament and not somebody that's not here. This is the biggest -- as far as I'm concerned, it's the biggest tournament in the world. It's bigger than any one golfer.

Now it's time to get down to business and I can't wait. I would never say that I am going to win something, but I know I have a chance and I'll be doing everything I possibly can to convert it.