The fact that I’m here at all came as a bit of a surprise. It was just a random e-mail. I was actually in quarantine at the time and checked this random e-mail from the PGA of America and it was an invitation to play. I was trying to qualify by getting into the top 100 in the World Rankings and because I was taking a long break I thought the WGC in February was my last chance. I didn’t play great there and was 112 in the world rankings so I’d kind of given up on it.

I first saw the course on Sunday and walked it and it’s an amazing piece of land, great golf course. I played nine holes Monday with Cam Smith and Jimmy Walker, nine on Tuesday with Keegan Bradley and I’m playing nine with Jason Day on Wednesday. The wind really blew on Tuesday so it bared its teeth and showed how it could play. Keegan said it was brutal on the Friday in 2012 and blew 30mph but I didn’t realise he had played so well here when he finished third; I should have picked his brain a bit more.

I played the back nine on Tuesday and it was pretty friendly going out with downwind holes but as soon as you turn at 14 it’s just brutal. I hit 3-iron into 14, 3-iron into 15, 16’s a three-shot par-5, 17 was 3-iron and 18 was 3-iron as well. The way it was playing on Tuesday it feels more like a US Open course but I like it. Obviously it’s going to be a brutal test and every part of your game has got to be on.

I’ve known for a few weeks that the long irons were going to have to be pretty sharp so I’ve done a bit of extra work on that. And then obviously you’re going to miss greens here no matter how good you hit it so short game’s very important. No matter how good you hit it you’re probably not going to hit more than 13 or 14 greens so you’re going to have to get up and down and chip and putt really well this week. That’s going to be the thing that separates the leaders from the rest of the pack.

Seventeen will get your attention. That’s the hole where guys are going to have to man up on the tee and hit a golf shot because there’s nowhere to hit it. If you bail out you’re not going to make par and then obviously you’ve got the water short and right. That’s the one shot that you’re probably not looking forward to.

It’s very important on a golf course like this to understand the different misses. It’s not a negative mindset, it’s being smart and thinking your way around. On a golf course like this there are times when missing in the correct spot is crucial. There are certain areas around certain greens where you’re just not going to get it up and down; you’re doing well to make a bogey and minimise the damage. It’s a fine line between trying not to be negative and trying to play smart. The harder the golf course, the more you have to think about the miss.

I can definitely see similarities between this golf course and some of our courses in Australia. The raised greens and tight lies around the greens is Australian-like and you’ve got to have your imagination around the greens which is pretty cool. But I don’t know that I’ve ever played anything quite like this. It’s pretty unique. It’s like an American links-style course. It doesn’t play like a links course but the wind certainly comes into play. You can use any club in the bag around the greens which is cool. We don’t get that on tour enough. I really like that.

It is a long course – they’re saying that it’s the longest course in Major championship history – but I don’t think it plays that long. The fairways are running a bit and obviously half the holes will play downwind depending on the wind direction.

When I played the US Open back in 2018 I didn’t really know what to expect. I was just there enjoying my first Major but this time I’m a different player. I’ve been around for a few more years now, know what to expect and I’ve been around the best players in the world for a while now. I’m used to playing against these guys. It’s obviously different playing only my second Major but I feel comfortable which is nice.