The memories came flooding back, the smile across my face was broader than the shared 1st and 18^th fairways and the excitement grew more intense the closer I got to St.Andrews last week.

I just couldn’t wait to return to the scene of my greatest triumph – last year’s Open Championship at the home of golf.

There weren’t as many banners along the route and the few on the route were to promote the Alfred Dunhill Links, and there weren’t as many people, but this was my first time back in the Kingdom of Fife and I couldn’t wait to be re-united with the grand old lady of golf.

I played alongside my brother Rickus this year, and in fact we were supposed to play together last year, but I had to pull out due to an ankle injury.  So it’s very exciting to finally return.

To be able to walk the course with my brother and re-live the final round when I got to get my hands on the silver claret jug was extra special and so happy to have been able to experience that with him.

Being here makes up for the disappointment of missing out on a President’s Cup place.  I was really looking forward to being part of the Rest of the World team taking on America in Melbourne, but it was not meant to be.

The big frustration was not making the automatic top 10 players, slipping out in the final run up after missing out on the FedEx Cup.  Although I was 11^th, Captain Greg Norman decided to go further down the list for his two picks and he went for two Australians, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley.  I thought that’s what Mr. Norman would do and I would probably have done the same had I been in his shoes.

At least it’s not that I won’t get another chance so hopefully in the run up to the next one I won’t have as many injuries and I’ll be able to play myself on to the team.

I noticed that Geoff Ogilvy, who also had to contend with injury issues in the qualifying process and edged past me in the run in, had some very kind words to say about me and went as far as to say he thought I was the best in the world.  It’s nice when one of your peers says things like that and hopefully I’ll be able to show everybody exactly what I can do in the near future.

There are times when I feel really good when I’m swinging the way I want to, but I have been struggling to produce the scores and that’s what counts not how well you swing the club.   Now I’m just trying to get my head and game right and when I do I’ll be heading in the right direction again.

I still have plenty of tournaments left this year and after this week I’ll be travelling far and wide to America, China, Malaysia and Singapore, but the one I’m really looking forward to is representing South Africa in the World Cup alongside my good friend Charl Schwartzel.

But now Charl and everybody else in St.Andrews will be trying to beat me and the rest of the field in what is one of the best tournaments of the year.  I’m just hoping that the glorious memories of last year get me back into contention again.

Louis is an Ambassador of UPS