I am looking forward to telling you my story in my Gulf News daily diary from behind the scenes at this week’s DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
It is great to be back in Dubai for a couple of weeks after a year of global travel again.
I am with my wife Sofia, and my newly extended family this week, my two-year-old Alava along with young Rafaela, our two-month-old son.
We are staying at our Dubai home, so that is a change of environment for me for a tournament week. The covid-19 restrictions seem to be softening somewhat as we all hopefully come out of this pandemic, especially in Dubai, where it all seems to be buzzing again with this week’s Dubai Airshow, EXPO 2020 Dubai and the golf, as well as so much more.
This year my golf has been somewhat up and down, highlights coming early in the season, just down the road at Abu Dhabi Golf Club with a fourth place finish in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and then the emotional victory in my National Open in Madrid last month.
That was a really special week and I was able to celebrate the victory with all my family and friends.
I was a little disappointed with last week’s missed cut on the Fire course at the AVIV Dubai Championship. I shot two rounds of 70, four under par, but just missed out on making the five under par cut. It was a low cut, but the standard of golf and scores seems to be getting better all the time on the European Tour. But my focus is now all on this important week ahead.
It is always said amongst the players that if you qualify for the season ending DP World Tour Championship you have had a good year, so I should not be too hard on myself despite falling down the rankings.
I have played well in this tournament previously, I know the Earth course well and it suits me. I have shot a best round of 64 over the track, so I am confident of a good week.
With such a strong field there are a lot of OWGR points available and I am hoping a good week will get me up those rankings again.
Fingers crossed for this week and see you all tomorrow.
