So here it is, the first instalment for the New Year, and I hope it is a good one for all of you out there who read this. Thanks for your support.
 

The New Year got off to an unfortunate start to be honest when my manager, Chubby, rang to say that the invite for the Royal Trophy that I was so delighted to receive came to nothing when the tournament was cancelled one week before it was scheduled to take place, sadly due to a death in the Thai Royal Family. This came as a bit of a shock for The Jockey, who found out by text from me just as he was about to get in a cab. The really bad news was that the cab was in Bangkok, poor guy had just got off the plane in Thailand only to find out there was no point in him even being there.
 

Still, three days later we convened in Dubai for a week of practice in the sun, which was probably more beneficial to be honest. However, The Jockey and I roomed together for the week which was an experience in itself. I, it is fair to say, am pretty messy, the complete opposite of The Jockey, (or Five Star as I have taken to calling him recently for his apparent disgust at having to stay anywhere other than a five star hotel nowadays), who is meticulously tidy and organised.

The Jockey also travels with more gadgetry than a NASA scientist. The list comprises: mobile phone (fair enough I guess), spare mobile phone (not unheard of) and spare mobile phone for the spare mobile phone. Weirdo! Add to that electric toothbrush, electric shaver, laptop, palm pilot thingy majiggy, headphones with microphone attached to make phone calls on laptop in case phone, spare phone and spare spare phone don't work, wireless adaptor to ensure the disastrous possibility of having to sit at the desk instead of on his bed to go online in his five star hotel room never happens, adaptors for all of the above and speakers for laptop so he can watch a film from his king-size bed, that is if he does not want to watch Spider-Man 3 on his new mobile phone ("look at the quality of the picture") which he cannot stop telling me about.
 

Me: laptop, phone, pillow, book.
 

Not much point in the pillow last week though, as every night I was awoken by The Jockey typing on his laptop at three in the morning. "Go back to sleep, you can't possibly hear me typing" he would say. I would say "go pay for your own room and type away", and then he would say "I think I might turn my lap top off now". I would say "funny that".
 

Oh, then there's our vastly different packing styles - quite an interesting insight to our respective personalities, I think. My style is wake up, say to The Jockey "let's pack and get going ASAP", throw my clothes into my case with my pillow, laptop, phone and book, then wait an hour and a half while The Jockey folds each t-shirt individually and places them in a small zip bag, then does the same with his underwear and places them in another zip bag, and repeats the process for shirts. Six bags in total I think I counted, all placed in his main bag, before he even starts to think about dismantling what resembles the NASA space station he has erected in the corner of the room with his gadgets. Oh, and then he has to sort out the pharmacy he has set up in the bathroom.

I, of course, at this stage have gone for a coffee which will give me a bad stomach and read all the bad news in the paper which makes me feel worse, before waiting for him to arrive in reception to announce that breakfast seems like a good idea. Three hours after I thought it was a good idea to leave, The Jockey thinks it is now a good idea to leave. Needless to say he has his own room this week.
 

Anyway, we had a productive week practicing and moved onto Abu Dhabi on Monday with a new Cleveland driver, new irons, new swing (hopefully) and lots of enthusiasm to get the New Year underway. Clive, my coach, was with me and is pleased with the changes I've made. However, it's still early days and patience is a virtue.
 

The Pro-Am was reduced to nine holes because of rain would you believe, which was a shame for two reasons, firstly I played the front nine on Tuesday and I started the Pro-Am also on the front so I never got to play the back nine before Thursday, and also as I was playing with three local juniors which was nice so it would have been good to play the full eighteen. This will make you think though - it was the first time any of them had ever played in the rain, which is unbelievable if you have grown up in Swindon, England trying to play golf in the winter.
 

Finally to the golf then, Thursday I drove the ball terribly but hung in well on a tough morning, only to have my third double bogey on the seventeenth hole to ruin my hard work. Friday I drove the ball so much better but was always chasing my tail to try and make the cut, which is always tricky. It's a bit like being two-one down in a football match - you have to push for a equaliser, always knowing that in doing so you may concede another goal, and that's what happened when I double-bogeyed the sixteenth hole.
 

So the year did not get off to the start we wanted, but on a positive note I am so pleased with how my swing is coming on, and I'm sure a good week will not be far away. Qatar awaits - a tournament I have always liked - so keep the faith in me, I certainly am.