The End Of An Era

Without question, this will be my last ever Blog reflecting my week working on the DP World Tour Championship.  I did say the same thing last year and so not one of the many friends I have made at this event believed me tonight when I said my final goodbyes.  Without exception, they all said "see you next year" but as today's final event of the season came to an end I have never been more certain that my decision is the right one.
Since the first moment I came here back in 2009 which was just prior to my formal retirement, I have enjoyed every single moment out on the golf course and witnessed many of my golfing idols at close quarters.  Some are no longer idols - they don't deserve the accolade - which is a great shame but when you witness the throwing and breaking of clubs close up and the lack of personal discipline then a golfer can very quickly fall down my very own Premier League of idols and let me tell you, it is a long road back!  Still at number one and very unlikely to be ever knocked off that pedestal is a certain Freddie Couples.  Anybody who knows and understands golf will appreciate just why Freddie sits in such an exalted position.
Enough of the holier-than-thou attitude and back to the activities of today where I found myself going out on the course alongside Ross Fisher and Shane Lowry, both starting the day on -9 and needing to shoot incredibly low scores if they were to challenge for the DPWTC title.  Well that is exactly what happened with Shane Lowry who set off like a greyhound out of a trap and I had the pleasure of watching him shoot the lowest score of the week, 63, with no less than 10 birdies! At one stage, it put him at the top of the leaderboard but ultimately, it was only good enough to get him second place and a pay packet circa 500,000 Euros.  Not a bad pay day for 4 days work!  Not only the golf was great to watch but so was the relationship between the two playing partners who clearly had a lot of respect for each other and chatted for most of the four hours on the course.
As is the case with most days, I had my usual embarrassing moment, this time with a bottle of water!  The problem is as a Scorer is that your hands are full with the electronic scoring device, your two-way radio and your clipboard and paper.  It makes it difficult to open a bottle but during the week, I have perfected the technique of gripping it between my upper thighs and unscrewing the top with my partially free right hand.  It's worked a treat until today when the top came free but I mis-timed the release of thigh pressure and the water exploded all over the front of my shorts!  It wasn't a pretty sight and clearly spectators who hadn't witnessed the malfunction thought I had had some kind of personal issue as the water ran down both legs and the wet stain spread across my shorts!  I was so glad that they were black because once I had dried my legs, things didn't look quite as bad as I feared and it was a bonus that for the next two holes we were walking into the hot desert sun which acted like a hairdryer on my rather wet personal area!  I blame Linda, my wife for today's incident because she has been sending me texts all week saying "drink more water"!
It has been a great tournament and the usual superb experience and I would encourage anyone with the slightest interest in golf to consider the volunteering role.  Even better, try and make the DPWTC your first event.  If anybody wants more details, simply e-mail me or contact me via Skipton Golf Club in North Yorkshire.
I could genuinely write and write pages yet but will call a halt and add a few more photos from Dubai.  I hope that if you have read some of the content you have enjoyed it, but if you haven't yet learned to read then I hope that some of the accompanying photos have painted a picture of my week in the desert.  Thank you and goodnight from Dubai.

The Race To Dubai Trophy & The DPWTC Trophy 

Early Morning Crowd Round The First Tee

The Sun Just Rising As I Arrive At The Course

Practice Area Under Floodlights Early Morning

Ritesh - My Mate For The Day

Chief Marshall Jenni On The Right And Assistant Jeanette On The Left

The "Skipton Three" With My Great Mate Alan From Southport. He Kept Saying "See You Next Year"

Final Groups Getting To The 18th

Jenni Saying a Big Thank You To All The Volunteers

Today's Scorecard.  10 Birdies From Shane Lowry!  Wow!

The Yorkshire Gang, Including Guy Who We All Love. He Was Born In Selby So He Is A Top Bloke

This Is Pete. The Man Who Nearly Removed The Feet Of Brandon Grace.
We Never Stopped Laughing!

And This Is Phil Who Can Drive A Buggy With His Eyes Closed!

A Stand Out Day

It's funny but some days always turn out to be more enjoyable than others and yet it's very difficult to determine the reason.  Today was just one of those days.
I hadn't been particularly looking forward to it after the heat of yesterday because I thought that if there was a repeat today when I was due to hit the course today at 12 noon, then it would be physically very draining.  As it turned out, there was a lovely breeze, the temperature had dropped considerably, I had a terrific young man Omar on the scoreboard and finally, I had the pleasure of scoring American Patrick Reed and Australian Scott Hend.
Now Patrick and Scott enjoy individually, a touch of notoriety, the former for his antics in the Ryder Cup and the latter for his somewhat short temper on the golf course. Nah!  They are both pussycats.  I actually met Patrick Reed a couple of years ago in Dubai and thought that he was a terrific young man with a very engaging personality.  It also helped that I had a pretty good knowledge of his birth state, Texas and his home town, San Antonio.
Scott on the other hand, a grizzled and older PGA Professional has a reputation for his fiery temper which had apparently been evidenced at some stage this week but not by me.  Well today I could have fully understood if the volcano had blown because the guy had absolutely no luck whatsoever!  Just occasionally you would expect to get the bounce of the ball but for poor Scott, nothing went his way and yet despite this misfortune, with the exception of the odd four letter word, he was brilliant and a pleasure to work for.  I have to say that at times I felt like uttering expletives on his behalf and when we had finished the round, I did say to him that he couldn't possibly have a repeat of today and that on Sunday he was likely to shoot really low.  I hope he does because I ended up liking Scott.
The other thing I need to mention as well before moving on is that Scott's caddy is his wife Leanne who is a very pretty and petite individual.  She is actually smaller than his golf bag and watching her carry it around the 18 holes of the Earth Course, I did at times feel like asking her if she needed a hand!  I do worry about her back going forwards!  I'm not being sexist either before anybody reading this complains!
It is a total privilege to walk around a golf course and to be so close up and personal to people you have watched and admired on the TV over the years.  It's even nicer to engage in conversation with some of them and discover that they are indeed, quite normal despite their incredible wealth.  You also realise just how amazingly talented they are but it doesn't just happen because I have witnessed them spending hour after hour on the practice range and on the putting green and their work ethic makes it crystal clear why I am so rubbish at the game!  I need to practice and warm up before I go on the course or put simply, I will never get any better.
Off the course today, I was chuffed to meet up with one of my hosts last year, Chris but not his wife Ellen who was working non-stop preparing for an Ofsted inspection that is due to start at her school next week.  Yes, it's the same type of inspection that teachers fear in the UK but I have always thought that there should be no warning and they should just turn up uninvited.  That's how it worked in the bank and it didn't do me any harm!!  Enough of serious stuff.
The Skipton Three or should I say Paul on this occasion, found himself being courted last night to buy a £4,000,000 house in Dubai!  Apparently, by the time the conversation had finished, he had convinced them that he owned 94 properties in London and was looking at acquiring a little spread in the Middle East.  I think the agent had been impressed at them staying in Atlantis The Palm and even more so by the fact that they could afford to spend £50 for just four coffees!  Apparently, they are sending a Rolls Royce for him tonight to go and inspect the show palace!  If he takes Amanda with him I fear that when I see them again in the morning, they will be the owners of a rather swanky pad and very, very poor to boot!
Final dispatch from the desert tomorrow.  Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments.

A Lovely Hour Spent Drinking Coffee and Chatting With Chris Before I Hit The Fairways

I Have Been So Lucky With Scoreboard Carriers. Omar Was A Lovely Lad

The Clunky Machine Used For Scoring

It's Like Carrying A Brick!

Pencil and Paper.  It's The Future!

A Sign In The Palm Atlantis Shuttle Bus! Seems A Pretty Fair Rule To Me!

How Much??

It seems that since their arrival in Dubai, the Kilners and sidekick Sophie possess a natural ability to generate a new tale for my Blog everyday and last night was no exception!  It's short and sweet and involves coffee!  I've written about coffee recently when we were in Kona, Hawaii but that post pales into insignificance alongside the excesses of last night!  And talking of pale, that's how Paul looked this morning when he arrived at the Marshals base! I thought he must have seen a ghost!
Quite simply, they went for a coffee in their hotel last night and Amanda fancied something a little different and so ordered the Blue Mountain Americano.  Ok, it's a coffee that was dressed up a touch but fundamentally it was an Americano.  Additional to this slightly unusual brew were three more coffees which one might call normal.
Very nice they all agreed after finishing their drinks and asked for the bill which unlike last night had to be paid by them.  It was only 215 Dirhams which might not seem a lot but when they did the conversion, it came out at £47.75 with Amanda's Blue Mountain topping the bill, if you will pardon the expression, at a mind blowing £23.33!  Perhaps this is a potential new and lucrative market that Starbucks and Costa should be investigating in the UK?
I swear that Amanda doesn't just do it for the experience, she does it to try and upset the equilibrium of her loved one Paul but this never seems to work.  He remains calm in all circumstances and I can never ever imagine him losing his cool.  Mind you, I have a plan to test him out with the 199 Dirham Mcflurry which contains extra gold coloured M&Ms!  Dubai really is something else.
 It has been a very hot day on the Earth Course but I was fortunate to find myself early out with Group 7 consisting of Joost Luiten and Japan's Hideto Tanihara.  Hideto, although speaking very little English, appeared to appreciate my regal two handed bow and a greeting of konnichiwa as he walked onto the first tee!  I had been practicing Japanese into the early hours for "don't knock it in the bunker" but decided it was a little inappropriate.  Instead I thought it was better to engage him in discussion about our very recent visit to Pearl Harbour and the Pacific conflict.  I was fortunate that there is a very good local hospital near by which was able to extricate his 7 iron from my person and return it to him before it was needed!!
I thoroughly enjoyed the four hour walk although neither player distinguished themselves and certainly won't be in the mix to try and win this tournament come Sunday.  The people who will be in there though include both Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood together with Tyrrell Hatton who shot an incredible score of 63!  That is 9 under par for you golfers reading this and I understand that it could have been better.  Can he repeat those fireworks tomorrow?  Apparently, young Tyrrell has a fiendish temper and a habit of slamming clubs into the ground but when I spoke to him earlier on this week, he was charm personified.  Whatever his temperament at the moment though, he is one of the hottest properties in golf and great to watch.
Tomorrow, I find myself out with better performing players although at this stage I'm not sure which ones.  It will be hot, dry and dusty and with Friday and Saturday being the weekend here, it will also be a lot busier.  It's a great experience walking down the middle of the fairways with these talented individuals and I would recommend anyone with an interest in golf to try the volunteer experience.  I might well write a little more about that tomorrow.
As usual, some photos to paint the picture here in Dubai.

The Blue Mountain Americano!

Nearly £50 for 4 Coffees!  Would You Leave a Tip?  I Bet Paul Did!

Haithan - My Company For The Day

My Home For The Week

It's Huge Inside

With Martin Kaymer

And Thorbjorn Olesen

With Tyrrell Hatton Who Shot 63 Today!

The Tale of a Very Mysterious Woman!

Ok, ok!  I know that this is supposed to be a golf Blog and not an Agatha Christie novel but I have to recount the tale of what happened to the Kilners and their sidekick Sophie when they hit the bars of Atlantis The Palm Dubai last night and then I'll get onto the golf.
I've reflected in previous Blogs that whenever Paul and Amanda are in town, things happen and last night was no exception!  They are staying in one of Dubai's prime hotels.  It's swanky, it's exclusive, it's rather (bloody might be a better word) expensive and in fact is positioned a million miles outside of my price range!  It's exclusivity of course is its draw, attracting a particular kind of client and so it was when the Skipton three hit the bar last night and found themselves sitting next to beautiful and immaculately dressed woman sitting on her own.
Well of course, it wasn't very long before Paul had drawn her into conversation - he is very engaging and believes everyone likes to hear his tales of blood and gore experienced on his many helicopter trips around Yorkshire!  Apparently, the lady appeared to enjoy her new found company although Paul did say that there was something rather defensive about some of her responses.  In fact it was almost as if there was an invisible barrier.
She admitted to having just arrived from New York and Paul questioned in his own mind how anybody could possibly look so cool and fresh after such a very long flight.  He also wondered how she seemed to know so much about Jennifer Lopez who was at the same time performing a concert outside the hotel! She did disappear for a while but returned and whilst she wouldn't accept the offer of a drink from the group, she did stay to chat for quite a while longer, eventually leaving and thanking the Skipton three for their company.
Well when they came to leave and to pay their £100 bar bill, the waitress said, "that's ok sir, it has been taken care of"!  Despite trying to discover either her name or her room number in order to  record their thanks, none of the hotel staff were prepared to disclose details and so Paul and the gang are now left wondering just who this mystery woman was?  We spent an hour this afternoon looking at everything to do with JLo but trust me, if Paul is ever asked to identify someone in a police line up, the innocent ones had better be very afraid!
And so to golf where today, the tournament proper commenced and I found myself walking the fairways with Zimbabwean, Dean Burmester and Spaniard, Adrian Otaegui, both relatively unknown on the European Tour and yet they have to be good golfers to get into this competition.  They proved their respective worth over the 18 holes as both finished under par and well positioned for Day two of the event.  Dean was charm personified and extremely engaging and it was great to walk down the fairways with him talking about everything happening in his own country right now and the problems of South Africa where he now lives.  In all the times that I have now acted as a scorer in Dubai, I have never been engaged in such a way by any other golfer, mainly because they always have their game faces on when the tournament proper commences!
There was another distraction today in the form of David, our lone marshal, who is a natural born comedian and able to reel off jokes and one-liners that are very dangerous because laughter on the fairways can be an awful distraction and lead to officials being removed from the course!  I am still smiling at some of the jokes 12 hours after being told them.
One final story today relates to Justin Rose, one of the only three possible winners of the Race to Dubai trophy.  I met Justin again yesterday and his coach, "Fooch", in a very quiet part of the course and found myself driving them back some distance to the clubhouse.  Justin had been sponsored for a couple of years by British Airways with their logo very much in evidence on the collar of his golf shirts but this has now disappeared in favour of Mastercard! I explained about my own BA connection through Sarah and how disappointed as golfers we were that this high profile advert had now disappeared and he explained that it all came down to money although he was a touch disappointed because he uses BA  a great deal flying  to and from his home in the Bahamas.  He did however say that if he was ever on a flight where Sarah was part of the crew, she must definitely introduce herself and say hello.  He was also very happy to let me get a photo with him and out of respect for the hurt that both Sarah and I felt, look below at what he did on the photograph!  I said before he is a lovely guy and my meeting with him yesterday only cemented my view.  Nice one Justin and what a great start today shooting -6, one off the lead of American, Patrick Reed.
Nearly finished but one final big up to Daniel, my scoreboard carrier for the day.  A lovely young man who is destined for a future in engineering in the USA.  He and his family should be Chicago bound next year and I wish him luck in his planned future career.
Enough, enough as I need to get to bed but more visuals to enjoy below before I go.

Justin Hiding The Mastercard Logo!

Had Fun With Lee Yesterday

And Caddy Billy Who Lives Near Us In Eldwick

Paul Meditating On The Mystery Woman & Guy, a Great Friend, Fellow Yorkshireman & Dubai Resident

Breakfast This Morning

Marshals Accommodation

Ditto.  It's Very Nice

The Calm Before Everyone Starts To Arrive

Daniel, A Thoroughly Nice Young Man

See The 18th.  I Nearly Messed Up!  Phew!

Oh-Oh! The Kilners and Their Sidekick Have Arrived In Town!

Having now returned to Dubai and the DP World Tour Championship on a number of occasions, I arrived on Sunday last vowing that there could be no Blog this year because in reality, there would be nothing else to write about!  How wrong was I?  I could write a book and the tournament proper hasn't even started.  With four days still to go, I am now anticipating writing my own version of War and Peace!
The topic of war suddenly reminded me about an incident that occurred yesterday involving fellow driver Pete which could have ended in serious bloodshed and the end of a Professional's glorious golfing career!  That golfer was Brandon Grace who I did write about yesterday and him winning the most recent tournament last Sunday, pocketing a cool million pounds in the process.
Well when we transport golfers and their respective entourage from the 9th green to the 10th tee, we have to reverse the two buggies down a narrow path, one behind the other to collect them off the green.  The key is that once the reversing manoeuvre has been completed, you need to switch the buggy back into forward mode!  If you don't do this, there can be serious consequences including whiplash and in the case of young Brandon, double amputation!! Yes, I was parked directly behind Pete and when we loaded everyone up and I gave the instruction to go, Brandon was sitting on the back of Pete's trolley with his legs dangling free.  Yep, foot down and full speed ahead!  Unfortunately, backwards not ahead and straight into the front of my buggy but instead of seeing, nay expecting to see two severed feet, youth won the day and our very expensive cargo had the reactions of a chameleon (trust me, it's fast!) and got his legs out of the way.  He seemed totally unfazed by the experience, readily accepting our apology and we delivered him safely to the next tee.  Since we dropped him off, three of us have laughed incessantly at the thought that we could have made headlines in all today's papers!  Can anybody out there come up with an idea of what The Sun headline might have been?  We three and I include my new mate Alex in this triumvirate need to grow up and start acting like mature adults!
And so another big day today with the arrival of the Skipton mafia in the form of friends Paul, Amanda and Sophie.  There should have been a fourth but I haven't yet found out what happened to Steve!  No questions asked.  However, there is enough trouble with three and in fact all the trouble comes from just two because Sophie, Past Lady Captain at Skipton Golf Club is the serious one amongst the three whilst Amanda spends her time lusting after the veritable array of very young and in many cases gorgeous (her words not mine) golfers.  I think she took on the role of marshaling in order that she could become a stalker!  She is very professional at it but I have to keep reminding her that some of these young men are just out of puberty and she should know better!  This doesn't seem to dissuade her from these activities though!  She is very funny however and her infectious personality captivates most people she meets.
The word funny is not one that I can apply to her husband Paul!  He is absolutely hilarious and has a capacity to make me and others cry with laughter at some of the stories he recounts.  In all my years spent at this tournament, he is the only marshal that I have ever seen being silenced by his fellow marshals when a Professional is playing his shot!  It shouldn't happen but quite simply, he is unable to avoid engaging in conversation with the myriad of spectators that he is trying to keep quiet!
Paul was a star of TV when he was seen working as a paramedic in the series, Helicopter Heroes.  You would appreciate his presence for so many reasons if you had had a catastrophic accident - he might have been very useful yesterday if the tournament had suffered its first industrial accident with Brandon! - and today, his talents appear to have been recognised and he has been added to the list of First Aiders! First Aiders?  This man is a real life saver and if he couldn't save you, at least you would pass to the other side laughing as you took your last breath!  Before we knew it today, Paul was sitting down in the office of the main Doctor at the tournament and we think was actually assessing this medic's capabilities!  I think he gave the Doctor an A* but it wouldn't surprise me to see Paul more in action as a life saver than a marshal!  It's great to have friends here to enjoy the event and no doubt they will feature again over the next few days.
Short and sweet and more visual than verbal.  That had been my motto for this latest Blog but I appear to be failing miserably so enough for tonight and onto some photos!

Tommy Fleetwood.  Leader of The Race to Dubai and Such a Lovely Lad

Ian Finnis,  Tommy Fleetwood's Caddy.  It's a Great Pairing

Ian Poulter - Back In The Mix

Looking Down The 10th Hole

Looking Back Down The 9th Early Morning

The Bunkers Are Enormous!

Paul and His New Medic Friends

But This Isn't a Helicopter!

Such a Look Of Innocence!  Sophie on the Left and Amanda the Right

Spells Trouble!  Coy and Kilner With Sophie, The Quiet One!

The Practice Range

It's Hot, Hot, Very Hot!

I realise that Dubai, a once very small fishing village, has been created in a desert area and as such, one would expect it to be hot!  Well yes, it has very much lived upto expectations in the first couple of days that I have been here but what is surprising is that conversations I have had with many of today's golfers, many of whom are Dubai residents, there is little doubt that they all believe that the climate is changing and that it is getting hotter here!  That's quite a statement to make when Summer temperatures can reach a near 50C!  Phew!  But what could temperatures hit in future years?
The normal expectation is that by November, the city should be cooling down but this year, that
downturn in the heat is a little late and today the mercury hit 35C which made it quite unpleasant for all the golfers, young and old, who were walking the course rather than using buggies which is the norm here!  I felt for some of them as I sat in my own personal buggy ready to transport them from the 9th Green to the 10th Tee, a distance of some 300 yards.  Of course it also made me think that on Thursday through Sunday, I will be walking the very same course for upwards of 4 hours exposed to the hotter than usual desert sun!  I'm already preparing by drinking water like a camel and hoping to store it in a similar way but something very strange happened today and we all appear to be suffering the same malaise.  The $64,000,000 question of the day was, how can you drink so much water and yet never need to pay a visit to the toilet?  I don't wish to enlighten anybody reading about my own personal toilet habits but it is unusual that a man aged, shall we say north of 60, should be able to pay his normal visit to the bathroom at 5am this morning when he woke up and yet not pay the bathroom another visit until he returned to his accommodation 14 hours later!!  Is there a Doctor in the house??
Briefly on today's golf, it has been Pro-Am day when the top 60 golfers are partnered with 3 local amateur golfers who pay vast sums of money to enjoy a round of golf with one of the world's best.  It's a fun day and it must be both wonderful and yet nerve wracking to take to the fairways with these world stars of their chosen sport.  It is, in most cases, played in a great spirit of friendship and camaraderie and for me, it's an opportunity to engage in conversation with these golfing superstars and perhaps learn a little about their respective personalities.
My favourites today were Sheffield born Matthew Fitzpatrick who was surprised to find me asking questions about his younger brother Alex, who trust me, is going to be a future star of golf.  He is an astonishing talent and was playing elsewhere in the Pro-Am this morning and Matthew seemed delighted at my knowledge of young Alex.
Justin Rose was totally engaging and we talked about his dad who is no longer with us but would have been so proud of his son's success and the way he represents the game and conducts himself at all times.  Most impressive in my eyes and I was sorry that I forgot to get a photo with him.  Perhaps an opportunity tomorrow.
Finally, South African born Brandon Grace who on Sunday won a million pounds at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in his home country and who was very engaged when I told him of my own excursions to his country during our winter months. 
Enough chatter and time for some photos :

The 1st Tee

The 10th Tee

Fellow Buggy Drivers, Pete and Alex

Brandon Grace - Nedbank Winner on Sunday

Justin Rose On The Green

Sun Setting On The 9th Hole

Tonight's Sunset

The Writer On His Buggy

Fellow Yorkshireman, Matthew Fitzpatrick