There was so much to look forward to with last week’s Quicken Loans National being played at Congressional.
I’ve missed this tournament for quite a few years, as it’s usually around the time we travel to Europe to get ready for the Open Championship, so the prospect of playing this year was exciting. I love these traditional old courses up in the North East and, even if I hadn’t won the 1997 US Open here, Congressional would still be absolutely one of my favourites. The set-up last week was fantastic and very fair, but an extremely tough test of every facet of your game, as we saw from the scores out there.
Anyway, we also had the visit to the White House last Tuesday to meet the President (pictured above). I brought my daughter Samantha along and it was a special day for both of us, one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, especially coming from South Africa. I’ve seen movies and television shows and so forth, and I must say they do a good job because it’s quite authentic the way it looks on television. It’s definitely one of those things that we can tick off our ‘Bucket List’ now.
Sadly, though, for me the whole week was overshadowed after we heard the news that a close family friend had passed away very suddenly back home in South Africa. Obviously I played my first two rounds with something of a heavy heart. How can you not? That kind of news really knocks something out of you. He was a great guy and we had some wonderful times together; we’ll really miss him.
We’re in London now as we get ready for the build-up to the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. As well as working on my game, right now is a wonderful time to be a sports fan. I’ve been loving the World Cup football on television and seen some amazing matches. While we’re in London we’ll hopefully get a chance to go along to Wimbledon and watch a bit of tennis, too. That’s always one of our favourite things to do every year.
Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll write again soon with more news but in the meantime you can obviously follow me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy
