They say no one remembers who came second and of course they are right, so Gregory Bourdy will always be remembered as the 2008 Portuguese Open Champion - a title he fully deserves after leading all week and then having to come from behind to force a three way play-off on the final day.

Alistair Forsyth had to head home disappointed at not winning his second event in a month, when he fell short on the second play-off hole. A pulled drive left his ball in a bush on the uncompromising 18th hole of the wonderful Oitavos Dunes course, just outside of Lisbon in the sublime little town of Cascais. After finishing with two birdies to force his way into the play-off, I'm sure he will have mixed feelings about the eventual outcome.

The final participant in the play-off came as a surprise to many. On a tour awash with young, fit, athletic and ambitious golfers, a slightly balding, not so long ago injury-ridden golfer with a career in the doldrums and no visible signs of improvement to mentally hang on to managed to shoot 67, 68, 67 and 64. This left him eighteen under par and with an agonising wait to see if that total would be good enough for his first victory in nearly two long, woe some years.

Who is this guy, I hear you wondering? Well, he surrounds himself with an interesting bunch of helpers and his caddie says things like 'I've had a good look at myself on the television and have decided that with wide screen TV, my legs don't actually look that much out of proportion with the rest of my body, you know' on the seventy first hole. Fantastic caddying I would have to say, making sure his boss has one less thing to worry about coming down the eighteenth hole, with all the added pressure that comes with that situation.

The caddy, of course, is known as The Jockey, his boss is me, and sorry pal - you're wrong. Your legs are way out of proportion, even on TV, especially in high definition.

So there you have it, I lost on the third hole of a three way play-off, the fourth time I have been unsuccessful in a play-off in my career. I did my best, but Gregory holed a ten foot putt on the twentieth hole to keep me from winning the title. On the next, with it down to the two of us, the shot that was my nemesis this week came back to haunt me when I dragged my four iron left of the green. A poor chip and a missed twelve foot putt handed Greg the trophy, which was a sad way to end an otherwise incredible day.

So what brought around this unbelievable change in my fortunes? Well that praise goes to Jamie Gough, my new coach. We arrived in Lisbon on Sunday night to begin work bright and early on Monday morning. My mission was to stand nearer and taller to the ball with my hands higher, make a big flat shoulder turn and keep as much width with my arms as possible, with as stable a left side at impact as possible. It would seem it works and to be honest, I amazed myself at how well it stood up to the pressure of the weekend at such an early stage. The not so stable left side was the culprit for some dragged shots to the left at the death and is something I will have continue to work hard on, but all in all it has been a remarkable turnaround.

Jamie has started working with me in a much better state than I was in when I first struck up with Clive six years ago. Under Clive, I improved my set up and my swing massively, to the extent that perhaps we thought that it was as well as I could do things. Without that history, knowledge of my injuries and the constraints that came with them, Jamie has been able to look at me as a kind of 'blank canvas' that he can paint his own ideas on. Hopefully the next few years under his guidance will be as successful for us as the last five were for Clive and me.

To wrap things up for this week, it was great that my Father, Raymondo as I call him, was with me all week, hogging the limelight on the TV as usual I'm told. He has recently retired and all the more relaxed for it which is great to see. Hopefully he doesn't now think that he's my lucky omen, as he may then think he should come to every event (only joking). (Actually no I'm not).

I am happiest, however, for The Jockey, who has stuck with me for the last year, has always been upbeat and positive and has always believed that I would turn things around. He was great last week and it was nice to finally share some good experiences on the course.

If only I hadn't asked him to read a putt on Saturday on the eleventh. 'Trust me', he said, 'its left edge, commit to it, trust me, its left edge'. And I was left screaming 'WHY oh WHY would I trust you', as the ball missed the left edge by four inches and there was a ripple of laughter from my playing partners. Next time pal, remind me not to trust you on the greens and we will be just fine.