Monday was a long day as to get to Ostrava for the Czech Open I had to catch three flights but as last week it wasn't straight forward! My flight landed in Paris on time but after a long wait to get to the gate, made things a little tight for my next flight. When I got to the immigration hall there was a massive queue as there were only a couple of desks open as apparently there was a strike of some sort! After an hour of waiting patiently I got to the front on the queue only for the guy to wave me through without looking at my passport. With a further 20 minute walk to my gate I knew I had missed my connecting flight. I got rebooked onto a later flight which got me into Ostrava at 10.30pm, only to find out my baggage hadn't made it. After filing paperwork about my missing baggage I caught a car to the hotel which was around 30 minutes away and finally got to bed much later than planned.

I woke up on Tuesday and spent the morning making phone calls to try to locate my luggage and get an idea of when it would arrive with no idea of when or if it would arrive I spent the rest of the day waiting at the hotel and making more calls. My baggage finally arrived at the hotel around 8pm I was very relieved as I thought they might have lost my bags.

With not getting a practice round on Tuesday I went out and walked the course on Wednesday morning to try to get a feel of the course and to have an idea of where I was going. It just shows at times that even with the best intentions of preparing properly things are out of your hands. The course was very hilly with some very undulating greens which would make for some interesting pin positions. After lunch I spent the rest of the day practicing on the chipping and putting greens. I have been doing plenty of short game practice lately as you can save so many shots from having a tidy short game.

I got off to a steady start with ten pars in the first round, missing a few good chances for birdie, but dropped three shots on the way in to shoot 75. I started Friday morning with a couple of bogeys in the first three holes and then settled down to play some good golf. I made three birdies to finish strongly and to shoot 71. At two over par it looked like I would be safely through to the weekend, but the scores in the afternoon didn't work in my favour and I missed the cut by a single shot. I played ok this week and was pretty happy with my golf, I didn't hole anything at all this week and my score of two over was pretty much as bad as it could have been.

I have a couple of weeks off now and it'll be nice to be at home. It is good timing as the football season is getting ready to start and the Ashes are in full swing so there will be plenty of sport to watch on TV.

On a sad note, I was so sorry to hear about Sir Bobby Robson, he is a legend in the North East and everyone who has met him always say what a gentleman he was and what a sense of humour he had. My thoughts go to his family at this sad time. The work he did even until his final week with his foundation should be an inspiration to us all.