Hope you’re all enjoying the Open at what is arguably the greatest place to play golf, it might not be the best course in the world but the place has a magical feel about it.

So a quick update on the last few months, I’ve been working incredibly hard on getting funding for the second half of the year , after my last event back in April it was pretty apparant that there was no beneifit to me in playing one event then again 5 weeks later! As I write this now after playing back to back events I am in a great position to play the remaining events on the Euro Pro Tour. I must thank Audi Vw Lincoln for paying for a few events and also lending me cars to get to the last two events, I cant thank Steve and all the guys down there enough for looking after me. Also to the scottish guys I met back in Spain at the start of the year, again they have paid for a few events and Kenny has been on the bag caddying and has been superb and great fun. I have some exciting news regarding sponsorship for the rest of the year but I will announce this in the very near future but needless to say I am so excited to be working with this company and the guys that run it, they are ambitious, succesfull and extremely professional.

So I started up at Montrose two weeks ago, a little journey up north! Only the 7 hours! Again thank you to the Scottish guys Kenny, Ian, Moose, Willie, Alan, Mike and Duncan for all chipping in. The accomodation they had sorted was just unbelivable, only overlooking the 18th green. The course itself was just superb and what you would expect from links golf, great views, underlating fairways, lined fairways of gorses and deep bunkers! I arrived feeling pretty confident about all aspects of my game and the practice rounds went great, however having not played competitive golf for over 3 months I found myself feeling a liitle out of sorts with the whole tournament feelings. I started very nervy and even had Kenny running on the second hole! The last time this happened was in 2003 so he informs me!! I did bounce back well after been +2 through four with 3 birdies on the spin but a couple of loose shots coming in and some rusty course managmemt meant i signed for a 4 over 76. The dissapointing thing for me was my feelings over shots and some very poor thoughts but to be expected after so long out. The second day was pretty much a carbon copy of the first day, over par early then 4 birdies on the spin on the bank nine got me under par but again loose shots and missing the green on the wrong sides saw me finish with a 3 over 75. Many positives to take from the week though and very clear what was needed for me to work on going into Mar Hall in 10 days time.

Sam