It is not glaringly obvious what is wrong with my golf at the moment. I am not sure I know what the problem is. But obviously missing the cut in the US Open was very disappointing and I don't need to be reminded that it was my second missed cut in succession.

Once I knew for sure I wasn't going to be playing the last two rounds we jumped into the car and drove into Manhattan and Kate and I will have a nice dinner together tonight while my Mum looks after Leo.

It was raining when we arrived and it looked a bit dreary but I still loved the New York skyline as we approached. Other people may talk about the electricity in the air in Manhattan but I love the skyline. I could look at it for hours.

I wanted to get away from Bethpage and as I am playing in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut next week and in Washington the week after there was no point in going home to Orlando and then coming back up here almost immediately.

I think a couple of days like this this is the sort of thing I need to help me snap out my slump. I think I might be trying too hard. Fooch, my caddie, thinks, it's all to do with my short game. Nick [Bradley], my coach, is bemused. He keeps saying he can't see anything. I don't think I am having enough days off, days when I don't think about the game. I have played my best golf when I play as much as I have to and then make sure that I do something else on other days, to refresh my mind.

If I keep worrying about whether I have been practising enough, or practising the right parts of the game, then I am not going to improve. It's like the yellow line trick. Anyone can walk along it but ask them to do it when their life depends on it and suddenly it becomes very difficult.

I know it will come right but I am beginning to wonder just when?

I have made tentative plans for when I return to Britain early next month. There is my charity day to be staged at Stoke Park on July 8 and then I think I will go to Ireland and play some links golf. I have never done that before the Open. Last year I played Birkdale in May and I don't think that was enough preparation. I'll go to Ireland with Fooch, Nick and probably a couple of mates to make sure it isn't too intense.

Tiger used to warm up for the Open by playing in Ireland. And I hear Harrington has played and won the Irish PGA Championship the week before the Open for the past two years. So it hasn't done him any harm either. Let's hope something similar will rub off on me.