After a perfect start at last week's Players Championship, it was frustrating as I struggled over the next three days on a course I thought I'd do well on. The opening-round four-under 68 was satisfying, especially because it was my first competitive round on TPC Sawgrass, but nothing went according to the plan after that. I was hitting the ball well, but my short game was completely out of tune.

On the final day, I found just nine greens in regulation - missing most of them by just yards. But I failed to make any decent scramble. I would have expected to complete such a round in about 25 putts, but my chipping was so bad, I needed 31 putts.

The only reason I can think of is that I am putting too much pressure on myself. I have a good chance to secure my US PGA Tour card for the next year, and the first step towards that is to attain the Special Temporary Membership (STM), which will allow me to gain unlimited sponsors exemption this year. Otherwise, I can only play a maximum of 12 events on the PGA Tour, including the Majors and the WGCs.

I needed about $38,000 to attain my STM before the start of the Players Championship, and I need to be in the top-125 in the Money List at the end of the season after that to secure my playing privilege in 2010. I have written in this space before how I hate getting result-oriented, and that's exactly what has been happening these last few weeks. Perhaps I am thinking too much about the PGA Tour card. 

Well...just about the only good thing at the Players was that I made pars on all four days at the famous par-3 17th hole. 

Hats off to Henrik Stenson for a fantastic performance in winning the tournament. That final round 66 was worth its weight in gold. The conditions were very difficult, with the greens completely baked and hardly holding the ball. To play a bogey-free round on that day certainly deserves the championship.

 As much as I wanted to play the Irish Open on the European Tour this week, I decided to pull out. I love playing in Ireland, I have always done well in the Irish Open and I was hoping to get a taste of the new venue for the tournament this year - the links course at County Louth. I am now going to get ready for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the European Open and the Wales Open, before I head off to the US again for the US Open at Bethpage Black. I hope to get in a couple of extra practice rounds at Wentworth and work on my short game. Hopefully, I will have something better to report in the coming weeks.