I Wasn't Worried But I am Now!

Firstly I am happy to report that Virgin Atlantic delivered me safely to Dubai this morning having kindly provided me with a row of extra legroom seats which at least gave me the opportunity to stretch my legs and get some sleep.  The sleep however simply didn't happen and at 2150 Dubai time, I am updating today's blog in a semi comatose state having dozed for approximately half an hour during the night.  That said, the day has been an excellent, exciting and somewhat unnerving start to my week working on the 2014 DP World Tour Championship.

For the first two nights here I am being graciously hosted by good friends Linda and John who live in a wonderful location overlooking Dubai Marina.  The view from my 34th floor window is breathtaking and but for my physically exhausted state could keep me captivated for hours.  I should say that Linda and John have a wonderful reputation for taking in friends in need and I feel extremely privileged and somewhat guilty that another friend, Paula, was ejected from her room this morning to make way for the hobo from Yorkshire! Fortunately my guilt should last only a couple of days as on Wednesday I move to the seven starred luxury of a Premier Inn!!

Back to the golf and today we headed to the course to get a feel for this year's competition and also to reacquaint ourselves with the course layout and the newly opened clubhouse.  In fact the clubhouse is so new that it was actually only officially opened this afternoon.  We did try to blag our way through security but for once the Yorkshire charm crash landed and we had to return to the former clubhouse which prior to demolition, is this year being used as the marshal's headquarters.  It's amazing that to a large extent, the new and I should say very grandiose clubhouse was partially completed in 2009 and has taken a 5 further years to bring into use!

I needed to be there today for a late afternoon meeting for the 30 TV scorers and also instructions for my work tomorrow on the Pro-Am where I am acting as a buggy driver to the golfers and their guests.  The latter worries me slightly as I have the responsibility to deliver players to a particular tee for the shotgun start.  Fear overwhelms me at the thought of delivering Henrik Stenson or Rory McIllroy to the 7th tee instead of the 14th and my homework following completion of tonight's dispatch is to commit a photographic record of the course to my brain.

But tomorrow's worries pale into insignificance against those of Thursday and the competition start.  Why?  Well another friend here, no names mentioned,  regaled me with a story of scoring for a particular golfer last year when for no apparent reason this superstar of golf after only four holes came out with the statement, "get out of the way you f*****g arse!  Guess what?  I'm one of the first scorers out on Thursday and one of my first charges might be that golfer!!  I don't scare easily but I will be making damned sure that at all times I am at least thirty yards away from him!! It will be his loss anyway because he'll lose out on the odd swing tip from me and perhaps a word about his alignment on the greens!!

I will leave you with one other and I think very sensible piece of advice given to us by Paul, head honcho of the TV scoring team.  If a player racks up a big score and you are not sure just how many, whatever you do, don't ask the player to confirm his score because one of his clubs is likely to end up where the sun don't shine!  Very good advice I would say.

As always, I like to finish my blog with some photos and I hope you recognise the two golfers and the tv pundit who was charm personified. The Italian golfer has always been a favourite of mine and I told him that I expected a return to the 2016 Ryder Cup team for him and his brother.

The excitement and the nerves build.