In a recently updated blog, Murphy talked about his next matchup with Selby in the first round of the British Open, Colin Morikawa's victory at the Golf British Open and the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination he received.
Hi guys:
Playing some very confrontational games in the Champions League made me feel really good and I'm excited to start warming up for the new season. I have to admit that since the last time I talked to you, I have found it difficult to interrupt my golf practice four times a week, after all, playing golf has become my habit.
I had my second dose of covid-19 vaccine last week, and it was a feeling of liberation from the inside out. In Ireland, you need to be vaccinated to get into indoor public places, so I can now go to more places. People's thoughts and feelings about vaccinations are a very personal question, but for me, getting a second dose is an important moment. The social limitations we've had over the past 18 months are hopefully going away in the future, and people will be more motivated. We've been through three or four lockdowns, several virus variants and all the other changes that have been brought about by COVID-19. Looking back now, through the restraint and efforts of the vast majority of people my age, I did see a brighter prospect for society and life.
We're all about to become virologists ourselves. Before that, unless you've seen the movie Infectious Diseases, no one knows what those viral sequences mean, but this movie is a stunning prediction of the entire stage of the COVID-19 pandemic! One of the great things about living with my wife, Elaine, is that she's a professor who is able to objectively dissect these things and explain them to me in an easy-to-understand way, which is very helpful to me.
Although I have been resisting the urge to play golf, I have watched Colin Morikawa win the British Open. He was a big cut off the other players in the final round. It's amazing to think that he's won two of them in just eight Grand Slams. You can tell from the way he plays that he is confident and completely fearless. His only thought was success. I can attest that as a professional athlete, winning becomes more difficult after you encounter difficulties and failures, but at the moment Morikawa himself is indeed at the peak of his personal career. When I watched the footage of myself winning the World Championships in 2005, I found myself competing with a carefree attitude. As we get older, it's hard to reproduce. Steve Davis always said that when a championship means everything, you should play like nothing matters, and lifting a heavy weight is a very difficult thing, but Morikawa did it at this year's Open.
I'm looking forward to the upcoming British Open. The dark draw threw me from one extreme to the other. I just played 33 innings with Mark Selby in a 35-inning super long innings 3 months ago, and 3 months later I played him in a best-of-five set. Compared to winning 18 sets of Selby to win the championship, I still feel like I can win the three sets of the British Open! I assure you that the chances of beating Mark Selby in a short game are very great. Beating Mark Selby in 35 innings was simply too hard. I'm looking forward to the British Open and I've trained regularly.
I recently went to Antrim to play against Mark Allen, Jordan Brown and Fogel O'Brien. I have to admit, I was packed up by the three of them together! I hope this hones me. I hope it makes me sharper, but it also shows that they play well. Jordan Brown played his performance at the Welsh Open, Mark Allen played the good he had always had, he was almost invincible at Antrim and Fogel was in good form. We've had months of summer breaks and it's easy to lose the momentum of the game. I got into the second stage of the Champions League and also suffered some setbacks in the race to Antlim and I hope I've found my feeling of playing again now.
See you at the British Open.
Sean