Did I tip Rory McIlroy to win last week?
Well, in my defence, I certainly wasn’t the only one.
And I definitely won’t be tipping him to win this week, that’s for sure!
It looked like his poor performance at the BMW PGA was easy to explain.
He’d played a lot of tournaments in a row, so it was put down to tiredness.
Everybody expected that he would be straight back to form this week at his home Open.
Well, that certainly hasn’t happened.
Nine over is an awful score even in tough conditions for a world number one.
I guess it shows a couple of things.
For all that he deserves to be ranked the top player in the game, he’s still streaky. And that last good streak must be at an end.
And the second thing is, it looks like he may well still be a fair weather golfer.
He’s admitted in the past that he isn’t as happy when the wind blows. We thought his Open win last year might have changed that, but although he’s had the benefit of home crowds, maybe America and its target golf is still best suited to his game.
It’s a big ask for him to make the cut from way down the leaderboard, but there will be a lot of people involved in the European Tour who will be desperate for him to do it.
McIlroy doesn’t play much over here these days so for him to miss four out eight days’ golf while he is in our country is bad news.
He’s our biggest star and we need him playing for a whole variety of reasons.
I’m sure Rory will keep playing the Irish Open, however poorly he plays, but it would be terrible news if he cut his number of events in Britain and Europe because he wasn’t enjoying as much success as in the States.
So when he comes back over for the Scottish Open in July, another missed cut is the last thing we want to see.
Keep your fingers crossed for no wind at Gullane!
* The Fifa corruption story is such a big one that it is hard to get your head round it.
Every hour it seems to move on.
Certainly, the dust is nowhere near settling.
If even half of the allegations of back-handers are proved to be correct than it truly is shocking.
From my point of view I would always like to think that people who are governing a sport are doing so for the right reasons.
I certainly don’t agree with every decision that is made by curling’s administrators but they make choices that have an impact on my career and you put trust in them that they will come to their conclusions for what they think are curling’s best interests.
It doesn’t look like that has happened in football, which is the biggest sport in the world.
World Cup bids should not be decided in the way it is being alleged.
It’s shocking, but it’s also very sad. And however Fifa emerges from this crisis it will take a long time for that trust to come back.
* Stuart Hogg’s comments about falling out of love with rugby for a while were interesting.
I don’t think I’ve ever got to that stage with curling. Don’t get me wrong, though, there are definitely low days when a practice session or an afternoon in the gym is a chore rather than a pleasure.
But, if I’m having a down day I always try and remind myself of the goals that you’re working towards.
For me it will always be an Olympics, with World and European Championships inbetween.
Stuart has a Rugby World Cup and a PRO12 final before that.
I’m glad he’s been able to rediscover his passion for his sport and hopefully there will be a big reward with a Glasgow win on Saturday.