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Martin Laird feels he didn't give himself enough birdie chances at St Andrews. Photo: SNS.

Even though I got my driving sorted out by the time I teed off at St Andrews, I still struggled with my iron game. On a course like the Old Course you need to have your irons dialled in to get even remotely close to a lot of the flags and I couldn't do that, meaning I just didn't have enough realistic birdie putts to get anything going at all.

was especially frustrating as you put in so much time and effort in preparing by playing the course a couple weeks early and spending plenty of time out there on practice days trying to figure out the best way around that fantastic golf course. Then when you tee off on Thursday all the preparation in the world doesn't matter if you can't hit the ball where you are aiming with your irons!

Looking back on the week now, it may be the first tournament I have ever played where I had more fun during the practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday than I did on Thursday and Friday. It was great to be out there soaking up all the history while trying to figure out where to go on the most unique layout you will ever see under Open conditions.

Normally practice rounds are hated by pros, but not at a place like St Andrews with the Claret Jug at stake. Players were definitely paying a little more attention when going around the Old Course early in the week as it really is a course you learn something new about every time you play it, whether it's your fourth or 40th time around.

That's what I think makes it ; I don't think you can every really figure it out.

It was also hard for me to struggle at The Open as I had such great support from everyone. I had a lot of family and friends who made the trip through to watch me and it's never fun to go out there and struggle when people make the effort to come out.

Hopefully I can make it up in a future Open soon by having a great week.

It was a great feeling standing on the 1st tee on Thursday and I was definitely a little nervous, as well as tired, with a 4:30am alarm clock getting me up way earlier than you really ever want to.

I had always dreamed about playing at St Andrews in The Open and now here I was, on the tee with a couple of minutes to go before my name gets announced. You're standing there soaking it all in and then before you know it you're walking down the fairway to your ball and it all passes so quickly.

But it is definitely something I will always remember, even if I try hard to forget what I did over the next 36 holes!

After my Sunday round at Loch Lomond when it had been blowing a gale and lashing it down most of my front nine, I had mentioned that I had remembered exactly why I moved to the US ten years ago.

Loch Lomond is a great golf course which, in good conditions, allows you to make lots of birdies and shoot good scores. With weather like we had on Sunday it was a different animal that was playing extremely hard.

I shot three over par and moved up, something that almost never happens on a Sunday.

Let's just say I was ready to get over to St Andrews and hopefully some better weather as it's never too much fun playing in conditions like that. Needless to say, .

With the way the course was set up, combined with the wind, it was probably the hardest conditions I have ever played in. Some of the holes were cut in places that make you hope the person that put them there somehow didn't see the weather forecast.

If they did, then they must have wanted to protect the Old Course after Rory's 63 on Thursday. They succeeded!

It is a major and it's not supposed to be easy but there is a difference between challenging and slightly ridiculous. The Open Championship and wind goes hand in hand, though, and that's what makes the tournament so special.

You hit shots that you will never play any other week of the year. You have to have complete control of your golf ball when it is blowing that hard or you will be made to look like an idiot, something that happened to me a couple of times on Friday.

It was fantastic to watch , and really make it look so easy to do so to. He was in complete control of his game all week and really didn't give anyone else in the field a chance after his 65 on Friday.

It's hard to describe just how well he played on the weekend, as winning a major is the pinnacle of our sport and is supposed to be incredibly difficult. He sure didn't make it seem like that on a weekend of tough conditions.

Congratulations to him, the most convincing major winner there has been in a good few years.

He seems like a really nice guy to go with it, which is always great to see.

Watching him win also gives me a lot of confidence as we are in very similar times in our careers, both 27 years old with one previous win on our tours.

He showed that you don't need to be a top 20 player in the world to win a major; you just need to have all parts of your game clicking at the same time and, most importantly, have the mental ability to handle the pressure.

You just never know when it's going to be your time, so I have to be patient and hopefully at some point all the hard work will pay off and my time will come.