And so another European Tour season officially draws to a close! Which means there are now only two final tournaments left on my schedule in which to try and secure that highest ever finish on the Race to Dubai!

As a matter of fact, after a short week spent in Belgium with family and friends, I flew early over to Dubai to get in some solid practice and physical training ahead of these next events. The Middle East is undoubtedly one of the best stops on our circuit…and probably the most familiar to us now too! Fortunately, all my coaches, Jerome, Mich and Fabien were also able to join me out here…and thanks to the generosity of the staff at both The Els Club and Jumeriah – we were able to put together a truly perfect preparation agenda!

Although Dubai is currently fully open and not experiencing a second national lockdown like the majority of countries in Europe, it was nevertheless still essential for us to get back into the European Tour ‘bubble’ early again this morning in order to keep safe while competing as well as fit in one final walk around this weeks venue, The Fire Course at Jumeriah Golf Estates, before the tournament begins. (It is worth mentioning at this point that we are operating on a Wednesday start in Dubai this week too!).

“It is honestly fascinating to see how quickly and impressively the greenkeeping team can turn things around to get everything up to tournament standard!”

For all the avid golf fans out there, you will most likely already be familiar with the Earth Course at Jumeriah, however, its the second course on this Estate (Fire) that the Golf in Dubai team decided to pick to host the first edition of their new tournament!

I actually managed to play 18 holes on the Fire Course a week ago and it is honestly fascinating to see how quickly and impressively the greenkeeping team can turn things around to get everything up to tournament standard! The fairways are now in fantastically tight condition accompanied by slick sharp greens and finely tuned bunkering too.  The Fire Course will be potentially less strategically demanding for us than its neighbour, the Earth…and with a couple of reachable par 5’s as well as a number of short par 4’s, hopefully we will be able to secure a decent number of birdies across the week too!

Without generating too much envy for those back home in brutally cold Belgium(!)…I am happy to report that we have perfect weather conditions predicted here in Dubai for the full tournament week with only light breezes picking up each afternoon.

Prep all wrapped up and ready to go now! We are off at 12.30pm local time tomorrow and looking forward to the fun week ahead!

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