HAD IT not been for my putting you could have been reading the column of a European Tour winner this week. Instead, after two fantastic opening rounds in the Heineken Classic, I ended 20 shots adrift of winner Craig Parry.

It was extremely frustrating, as it was all down to how bad I was on the greens. I felt good on Friday night after rounds of 69 and 68, five under. They had left me in contention for a place high on the leaderboard then, bang, disaster struck.

With my game feeling in good shape, I thought if I could just get the putter working in Melbourne then I might be in with a chance of keeping up with the leaders.

Instead my putter failed me terribly on the way to a 75 and Sunday was even worse. I had 40 putts, which is not acceptable at this level.

My biggest critic is myself. I know I need to do lots of work to get it right for the week ahead, particularly with the Holden New Zealand Open in mind tomorrow.

I have to stay confident with my game and put it down to experience, whilst using it as a reality check.

IN ALL fairness, this may not sound particularly good for confidence, but Australia and Singapore were two more events where I made the cut and it was money on the board for me - they all count as I look to retain my card.

I will be in touch with my coach, Ian Rae, at some point and chat to him about my game and how I can approach New Zealand. I can still take some positive thoughts into next week.

Out of my six tournaments so far back on the European Tour I have only missed one cut - that's pleasing - and I have been able to do that in mixed climates. Singapore and Melbourne were a lot warmer compared with South Africa.

YOU can't help but bump into star names on this Tour and that's why it's the only place to be. The past couple of weeks have been no different for me.

In Singapore, Lee Westwood congratulated me on my performance in South Africa, where I finished ninth, which I thought was a nice touch.

He had also noticed how I had been performing on the Challenge Tour over the past year. Little things like that are nice to know.

I have also had the pleasure of playing with Peter Senior, one of the veterans of the tour who has won many competitions around the world. I learnt a lot from Peter and he was an absolute gent to play with.

SPEAKING of gentlemen, I also had an encouraging chat with Colin Montgomerie in Melbourne, while I was working on my short game early one morning.

Monty, whose former caddie Steve Rawlinson is working with me now, was very interesting as he is a really nice guy away from the golf course.

I'm not saying he isn't a nice guy on the course but he has a reputation of being a moody player and I just got the impression that Monty seems much more relaxed off the course than on it.

WHEN you are globe-trotting it's not always the sort of weather to take in the scenery during any spare time. On Wednesday it rained heavily all day so I found it necessary to have a little drive around in my luxurious courtesy BMW X5, which was perfect really because there were trees and floods on the roads.

The storms also meant I had to spend a lot of time in the hotel room and I ended up surfing the internet to keep an eye on how my club Hartlepool were getting on in my absence.

To see they are doing so well is fantastic - hopefully I can keep making the cuts to replicate their success

Published: 09/02/2005