British Open

17 Jul 2002 - 21 Jul 2002
Muirfield Golf Links, East Lothian, Scotland

2000 British Open: Brennan holds the flag while Mike lines up his putt
© Doug Ball Photography

Gullane, Scotland--The conditions were perfect today. Yesterday was just survival. Today, you could get out there and get a score. There were plenty of opportunities out there and the greens were rolling nice. I expect guys to shoot some low numbers today.

Muirfield is a great track. It's very fair and it tests all aspects of the game. It seems when you miss a shot off line here, it turns out bad. If you hit it in the fairway, you don't get some of the crazy bounces like in previous Opens that I have played in, but if you're off line, you're going to be in trouble.

As far as Muirfield, it's one of the best courses I've played, for sure. It's a great test of golf.

I did have a hard time on the back nine on Sunday. I shot 40 and it started off with a bogey at the 10th. It was just frustrating that I burned the edge of the hole a lot all week and it continued today.

I made birdie at the third, nearly made a hole-in-one at the fourth with a four-iron, just burned the edge, then I missed the putt from about 10 feet. Then I hit a good drive on the fifth to go for the green and I pulled the second shot right underneath the lip of the bunker beside the green and made six.

Instead of getting two or three under, then I was back to even for the day and wound up shooting only one under on the front with a two-putt birdie on nine (par 5).

I burned the edge on seven and eight for birdies. I just couldn't get anything to go in. The greens are very deceptive. It's tough to make putts. On the U.S. tour all the time, with the bentgrass greens, if you get it on line, you can tell four or five feet from the hole that it's going in. Here, they look like they're going in but they don't.

On Saturday, I was a bit tired after that round of golf. I went back home and I was watching the telecast on TV last night and it looked nice late in the round so I came back to practice and I was out there 20 minutes and it started coming down again. I guess nice is a relative term over here. It was still a turtleneck and pullover in the summer.

As far as my preparations for this tournament go, it does help to come over early and we had a great time playing golf in Ireland last week. It took me until about the sixth day to get the body clock right. This week, I felt good. I was sleeping at the right time. I think it's good to get over here early to help in preparing for this Major Championship.

It's a great tournament and I love links golf. I still think it suits my game. I just didn't play worth a darn this week. I still love this kind of golf and the way the tournament is set up and look forward to coming back next year.

On Monday I will be flying to Edmonton, Alberta to play in the Wayne Gretzky and Friends Invitational. Should be fun playing against Wayne, Brett Hull and Jarome Iginla. Following that I will be going home to spend time with my family and continue to work hard on my game.

Thanks for your support,
Mike