I was very excited when I first started to travel so much. In fact, I was amazed that people were paying me to travel to play the game I loved.

The fact is, I've always felt more British than Irish. Maybe it was the way I was brought up, I don't know, but I have always felt more of a connection with the U.K. than with Ireland.

I receive huge support from Irish and British sports fans alike and it is greatly appreciated. Likewise I feel I have a great affinity with the American sports fans. I play most of my golf in the U.S. nowadays and I am incredibly proud to have won the U.S. Open and U.S. PGA Championship in the last two years.

I believe that anybody with Mandela's capacity to endure hardship and then forgive is a born leader and example to us all.

Leaving golf aside for the moment, I'd choose Roger Federer as a sporting role model, Muhammad Ali for a sporting and non-sporting role model and Nelson Mandela as a true and lasting inspiration.

It is never easy to win but it is a lot easier to win when you play well. The key is winning golf tournaments when you are not playing so well. Managing your game is something that I feel that I am still learning to do.

I mean I don't want to feel inferior to any other golfer in the world. You know if you do that, then you know you're giving them an advantage, you know, right off the - you know, right from the start.