The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Big summer ahead in bid to reach potential
Anytime you come away from a World Championships with a medal you can’t be too unhappy. We always go for gold but we can’t really argue with our bronze.
Rachel Homan’s Canadian team were the best all week and totally deserved their win.
They’ve been pretty consistent for the last year or so.
Our form was up and down, which made it a tough week but we never stopped battling and we saved our best game for last in the bronze medal match.
The first aim was to get Britain into the Olympics, which we’ve done.
Another positive is the fact that we’ve won a medal when we’ve not been at our best.
I’d say we’re at about 75% or 80% of our potential just now.
When the season’s over it’s going to be a big summer for us to work on the areas our coach has pin-pointed – probably the most important summer we’ve had.
If you say that team Homan are the benchmark, there’s no reason why we can’t get there.
They’re probably near their max just now but we know we can raise our game over the next 10 months.
Four years ago we won the Worlds and had a few other teams on our shoulder. This time, it’s the other way round. Hopefully we can time our run well and be at our best when it really matters.
Looking for a home win
I don’t think I’ll be putting China on my list of ‘must return to’ places and, after a couple of weeks away, it’s nice to be back at home.
I’ve been involved with setting up the EDF Energy City of Perth Ladies International and we fought hard to establish a big tournament in Scotland.
The field is even stronger than last year and it will be a hard one to win but we’re the defending champions and, with it being in Perth, it goes without saying that winning again would be a big deal.
Looking forward to first major
Like all other golfers I’m really looking forward to the Masters next week.
It seems that Dustin Johnson has been separating himself from the rest of the big guns.
I don’t think you can read as much into form going into this major as you can for the other three, though.
It’s all just shadow-boxing before the Masters.
This is the week the pros are all trying to peak at and there will be different approaches from player to player to make sure they do that.
Maybe it’s because the wait is longer for the Masters than the others, but Augusta always seems to throw up more stories.
You get old names coming back on to the leaderboard and new stars emerging.
And until Rory McIlroy wins the Masters, his personal story will always be a big one.
One guy who will probably be glad when somebody else gets a Green Jacket will be Danny Willett.
He’s not had the best of years as defending champion and it will be easier for him to regain his form out of the spotlight.
Mind you, he won’t be complaining if he wins, of course!
Hopefully we can time our run well and be at our best when it really matters