The Graeme Storm Column

Nov 4 2009 The Journal

IT"S been a disappointing couple of weeks for me with two missed cuts - but overall I'm still very happy with the way things have gone this season. I set various targets at the beginning of the year and while I have missed a few, I have made others.

I would have liked to have been in Europe's top 20 by this stage of the season and I also wanted to break into the world's top 100, and I've missed both of those targets.

To have achieved those targets I would have had to record a lot more top 10 finishes. In fact, you need to be finishing in the top 10 virtually every week.

Instead, I've had a lot of top 20 finishes, which is why I've been hovering in the 30s and 40s in the European order of merit all year.

So, the big target for next year is to try and convert those top 20 finishes into top 10 finishes - and that's usually only a difference of a couple of strokes. The margins are very tight in professional golf.

If I can achieve more top 10s then my rankings will improve at both European and world levels.

Also, I would have liked to win another tournament this season. I have been close on several occasions but been unable to just push on over the final hurdle.

So that's another big target for next year.

However, I can't really complain with the way things have been going of late.

It was very disappointing to miss the two cuts in a row at the Portugal Masters and the Madrid Masters - the first time I've done that for a while because I've been playing with far more consistency this year, it's just been the case that the putts haven't been dropping.

It was a mistake to go to Madrid but there's a lot of pressure to play in the big events.

I'd been pretty solid in the four events, in which I finished 14th (Johnnie Walker Championships, Gleneagles), 23rd (Omega European Masters), 34th (Mercedes-Benz Championships) and 19th (Aflred Dunhill Links Championships).

I was very happy with the way I played at the Dunhill event in Scotland where I scored 69, 69, 72 and 67.

It was also nice to renew my friendship with Irish pop star Ronan Keating as I've played with him three years in a row now.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way things have been going and I'm looking forward to the last few events of the year.