DIARY // START OF THE SEASON // 13th February 2008

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After a wonderful Christmas and New Year it was back to work. I went out to Dubai early in January to blow off the cobwebs and prepare for the start of the season. For the week prior to Abu Dhabi, I worked very hard on my golf swing with Coach Pete Cowan and focused on my fitness. I felt conditioned and technically very good before the Abu Dhabi event however, as it turned out, I had not played enough golf to be tournament sharp. If I have learnt anything from these past four weeks it has been that I need to learn how to balance my time prior to tournament play. I have a good record in these tournaments and had a real chance of moving up the world rankings if I turned in some good performances. Abu Dhabi was a disappointing start, as I hinted earlier; technically I was swinging it as good as ever but putted indifferently which lead to a disappointing overall finish. In Qatar I started to focus on playing not practicing, unfortunately it was a week late. This resulted in a satisfactory 20 place finish in Qatar. Even so, I was a little disappointed as I had swung the club well. Again, if I had holed some putts it may have been a completely different story. The Dubai Desert Classic included the world number one and therefore world ranking points were there for the taking. It was a big week for me and one that could have catapulted me up the world rankings. Thursday came around and I could not have prepared any worse during the week. I performed poorly on the front nine, felt very uncomfortable on the back nine and therefore shot my way out of the tournament with a 78, something you never want to do on a Thursday. I played well on Friday but had left myself with too much to do to make the cut. On reflection, having two or three corporate events during the week wasn't an ideal way to prepare especially with what was at stake. This will not happen again!!! I travelled to India with mixed emotions. You hear rumours but never know what to really expect when visiting new countries. I was looking forward to a new experience; however what I saw was a depressing sight. For an exciting and emerging economy I really did not expect the amount of poverty that we saw. It made me realise how lucky I am to make my living doing something that I love. The tournament was played on one of the best courses we play throughout our schedule on the European Tour. In fact it was a course that would really suit me under different circumstances. Unfortunately, it was déjà vu all over again; some really good golf was played in amongst some poor. After a very solid start to the tournament, it was a very disappointing finish. Some bad breaks led to some untimely bogies and the grainy greens led to a number of miss-read putts. All in all it ended in another missed cut! It was a tough few weeks but I must take the positives. Every aspect of my game is in good shape, technically and physically I am in as good as shape as I have ever been. In my time off I will work on creating a balance in what I do. I will continue to work out on a regular basis but I plan to play more during this time off, weather permitting! To return to the main News page click here