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Reading the Sunday Times just after you had missed the cut at last year’s Open, I saw that you said: “Sometimes, I can’t help wondering: ‘Is this it? Have I used up all of my good shots? Maybe I have to accept that I’m just one of the numbers’.” For you as a competitive golfer, is there not much time left?

Well, when you get beaten up like I was,
missing the cut in the first three majors of
the year, I wasn’t feeling very good. I wasn’t enjoying it at all. And I do wonder...you try so darned hard and you can’t do it, you do wonder whether the good shots have dried up – when you really need them. That is the big difference. You can play great or very good golf at times, but it’s doing it when you really need it. That’s what I enjoyed in
my era, being able to play the great shots
when I really needed them. Just being able to perform on that Sunday afternoon was what it was all about to me. You start to sense that if you can’t perform on Thursday or Friday, you’ve got no chance of performing on Sunday. You’re probably not going to be there, and even if you scrape through in 60th, it’s not the same. I’ve been affected by that. I’ve found it very frustrating. Sometimes I can deal with it better than at others but it’s an

acceptance that at 47, maybe that was my career, my best years. My mental preparation hasn’t been as good, I realise, now that I’ve started going into the transition of doing other [business] things. I’ve got to get more involved if I’m
going to do it. You leave things for someone else to get on with and so you’re no longer in total control, even though they’re on your side. With my team right now, I’m trying to be more hands-on.

You have three more years until you’re 50. Do you think you will play the
Senior Tour?
My goal is to be prepared so if I want to
make that decision, I’m ready for it. Over
the last couple of years, my body has
changed. You get tighter, quicker, the swing gets shorter, that sort of thing. I want to get myself in physically great shape and technically get my swing right. I’ve got some time to get everything sorted out, recharge the batteries, so that if I do it, I can be determined to go out and do something. At least it’s another option. Who knows where we’ll be in three years time with the business, doing the TV commentary, or with the course design. But I imagine that I’d love to give it a go for a year or two.