Volunteering At The DP World Tour Championship: 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.