Playing at the Senior Open there in 2017 was a really good experience. I’ve waited a long time to play a big tournament there. There were lots of friends and family there, and it was great to do well. It was a very successful Senior Open and the chance for the public to see pros like Monty (Colin Montgomerie), Corey Pavin, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam was excellent.

Porthcawl is a great all-round links course (a coastal golf course, which tend to be exposed to the elements). During the 2017 Senior Open we had a couple of pretty breezy days. I remember playing the front nine and thinking ‘this is proper links golf’. With strong winds you’ve got to hit good shots. It’s real, old-school links and if you don’t play well you get into a lot of trouble. There were a few players who didn’t survive the bad weather we had on the Friday.

I played the Champions Tour last year and a lot of the courses have massive fairways where you can drive as hard as you want and large greens to aim for, but Royal Porthcawl is very different. The course is tighter and the wind plays such a big role, that it can throw a lot of really good players off their game.

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