The Open is the dream tournament for every British golfer and maybe a good many players from other countries, too. It is the one every Briton wants to win more than any other.

I have lost count of the number of times that I have dreamt of winning the Open. One hundred, 1,000, who knows? I do know I have holed the putt to win the Open 1,000 times. For me, it's the highlight of the year. It is the tournament where dreams can come true.

I need to start playing well. I know that and the way I rationalise my ranking of 53rd in the world is that the numbers don't lie. If I am 53rd in the world, who cares? I have to get on and play some decent golf. All the good numbers will come with good golf.

My preparations for the Open began in Ireland last weekend. I went to Waterville, Co Kerry, with Macca, my boyhood friend, and Fooch [Mark Fulcher], my caddie, just the three of us to prepare on links courses for Turnberry. If we were wanting wild weather, we certainly got it. We had a great time being battered by the conditions on Saturday. We played for about 1 hours in the morning and I did some pitching practice and got very close to being waterlogged.

At about 5pm the rain stopped and we went out and got battered by the wind, which was blowing at 40mph.

We enjoyed ourselves on Sunday doing what you do on links courses. We were hitting five-irons 120 yards and punching nine-irons into the wind. It was relaxing and yet I feel it was good preparation for the Open. I even had a couple of beers and we dipped the ceremonial fishing rod into the river. Then we flew to Turnberry on Sunday night and drove to our house in Girvan, south of the course.

Nick Bradley, my coach, is not here with me this week. He and I have mutually agreed to call it a day. We felt that we had reached a slight stalemate and neither was as effective with the other as we would have liked. Nothing was happening.

I need to be the one in control. I have relied on other people too much in the past. It goes back to Dad, who gave me the tools to make my own decisions. When I am with other people I have a tendency to turn to them in times of need, instead of working things out for myself. It is about me being my own man. I find it easy to shift the blame.

Paul Casey's caddie, Craig [Connolly], and Fooch knew each other from the women's tour so I must say that the ten or so holes Paul and I played yesterday were a laugh a minute. Fooch would tap Paul on the right shoulder as he stood on Paul's left. You know the sort of thing. All very childish but amusing nonetheless.

The serious stuff starts today. I am playing with Hunter Mahan, a friend from the US tour, and Andrés Romero, a birdie machine. We start at 1.09 today and 7.58 tomorrow. That allows me to keep the rhythm going by not having a long break between rounds.

I am not panicking about my form. Good golf will come my way. I know it will and when it does I know in my heart of hearts that it will be better than ever.

Turnberry would be a good place to start playing better. I had my best result of the year in the US in my last tournament [finishing tied sixteenth at the AT&T National in Bethesda, Maryland]. I had the ball on a string. I hope it is still there.