Friday
After yesterday I was determined to make a good start to try to make up for some of the bad breaks I got ending in my two-over par 74, which put me at least a couple of shots outside where the cut might fall.
I wanted a good start - even with a 7am tee time - and I got it. I holed from 15ft for birdie at the first but then pulled my 6-iron approach to the second into the left-hand rough and didn't get up and down.
I was back where I'd started at +2 but then holed a 40-footer at the third for birdie and eagled the par-5 fifth, following my 2-iron tee shot with a 5-iron to 12 feet.
Then suddenly the game became a roller-coaster when I drove into thick rough at the par-4 8th and could only move the ball 50 yards. I couldn't get up and down from 80 yards, so another bogey on the card.
Birdies at 10 and 11 put me back in the picture but I drove into the left hand trap off the tee at 12 and took a bogey five and added another bogey at 14 when I was left with an awkward chip from the back of the green.
My caddie Guy and I worked out that I needed to reach the 16th tee in level par for the tournament to have a chance of making it for the weekend, because we reckoned the cut would be one under par. So when I birdied the par-3 15th from 20 feet that was a real bonus.
We were one under par with two par-5s to come.
I duly birdied the par-5 16th with a chip from greenside to about a foot and after a good par at 17, stood on the tee at 17, two under par.
I'd been driving the ball well all day but must have lost my concentration for a split second. I hit my tee shot out of bounds!
'Don't panic Simon you can still do this!' I told myself but when I hit my fifth shot over the green into the bunker at the back I thought my Open was over for another year.
But from a good lie in the sand, I holed my bunker shot! It was unlikely bogey six to finished one under par which now looks likely to be the cut mark.
My playing partners Mark O'Meara and Charl Schwartzel were pretty pleased for me, too - especially as they made the cut, too, though a little more emphatically. Mark had a 70 for a four under par total and Charl had a great 66 to be six under.
A bit of a roller-coaster ride but overall I'm pleased with my 69 and the chance to improve my placing tomorrow and on Sunday.
It's an early start again but I prefer that, rather than hanging around. I'm pretty exhausted.
