A new year and a new addition to my tour blog. January seems to come round quicker and quicker each year but despite that I was looking forward to getting back out on tour for a new season to see what it will bring.
Abu Dhabi was the first event of the year for me and indeed for a lot of the players. I arrived in Dubai on the Saturday night as I had arranged to do some work with Thomas Bjorn and Chris Wood before heading up to Abu Dhabi on the Monday.
It was my first visit to the The Abu Dhabi Golf Club, and indeed Abu Dhabi itself and I was impressed. The golf course was in great condition and looked a challenging layout.
My hotel for the week was on Yas Island which is a small island that forms part of Abu Dhabi. Yas Island hosts an unbelievably impressive Formula One track, the Ferrari World museum and theme park, while it also has another fantastic golf course called Yas Links. So there is plenty to do. In the evening you could here the Formula Testing taking place from the tracks, in fact quite a few of the guys during the week went down to see it at first hand.
With regards to the golf over the practice days I caught up with most of the guys as I hadn't seen the majority of them since the end of last year. I spent some time Darren Clarke on the Tuesday as well as Michael Hoey, Henrik Stenson and Rob Coles. With Darren we spent some time on his set up and stroke getting him more connected and stable in order to improve his contact.
In the afternoon I walked a few holes with David Horsey who played a practice round with the newly appointed Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal. That was a nice experience to watch Olazabal around the greens as well as to chat with him and get his views on the next Ryder Cup. David was rolling the ball very well. We had recently altered how he lines up the ball to help his putter face alignment at set up. The bigger line on the ball he is now using also gives great visual feedback during the putt and David was getting a great roll it was clear to see. Hopefully Ollie took notice!
It was much of the same on the Wednesday with a very busy day on the practice putting green working with each of my students. On the Thursday I ventured out to the course to see who was doing what following Darren Clarke for a few holes, who was playing with Henrik Stenson and Charl Schwartzel. Both Darren and Henrik played nicely but it was Charl that caught the eye with some unbelievable golf and putting, shooting 7under. That guy is impressive.
I also walked and watched a few of the other guys over the Thursday and Friday getting a feel for what they are doing on the golf course. A busy week but enjoyable one next stop for me will be Dubai for the Desert Classic in three weeks. The players however will move onto Bahrain and Qatar before finishing the 'Desert Swing' in at the Emirates Club in Dubai.
