Golf at Meydan

I was invited by a friend to join him and a mate for a round of golf on Saturday at the Meydan golf course, called The Track. I hadn't played for about 18 months, and neither had they, so there was no pressure! It was a nice relaxed round. The course was 9 holes repeated, with some challenging fairways (very hard and running on) and also some very fast greens. The back drop of views was also pretty spectacular. Here's a few piccies....

Meydan Race Course in the background

Now thats what I call a bunker!

A good time had by all!

Great weekend of sport in Abu Dhabi

This weekend Abu Dhabi hosted two major International sporting events; the second cricket test between England and Pakistan and the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship (with Tiger Woods, Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy etc etc). The two venues are literally only 10 minutes part by car and both of them were free to enter, so this afternoon went to both of them! I started at the cricket and saw England bowl out the last three Pakistani batsmen, then I went over to the golf. I stayed a couple of hours, following Tiger and Rory round a few holes and then watching more from the Village while getting some lunch. Then I decided I would go back to the cricket to hopefully see England bat through to 145 and win the test. Alas, what I actually saw was a totally dismal effort, totally outclassed by Pakistan's spin bowlers. All out for 72! Seventy Bloody Two ! Still, it provided a good spectacle, and made a large number of Abu Dhabi's Pakistani residents very happy!

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Ohh err, spooky date!

It is the second anniversary of me writing this blog. So much has happened in this time it is really quite unbelievable. We are in our fourth home, Caroline has starting her own work venture and we have visited some amazing places. Here's to another eventful year!

Just so nobody bothers asking - no, we had a crap new year's eve!

We had already decided to have a quiet night in, but Caz wasn't feeling great and I had a fever with a chesty cough. We were tucked up in bed watching a film Caz wanted to watch by 10.30pm - a lovely cheery story with Julie Walters going through an assisted suicide. Great way to see the new year in!

We decided to pull ourselves out of bed to go and see the fireworks on Yas Island from our balcony at midnight. We couldn't see them. We could hear them though. So as midnight came we just, well, listened to the fireworks, then went back to bed to watch the final moments of Julie Walters' life.........

Today was a better day though, well what we saw of it. I think we finally surfaced just after 1pm. We went to the Abu Dhabi World Tennis Championship and watched Rafa Nadal beat Roger Federer 7-6 7-6 in the final. A very civilized way to pass the afternoon of new year's day.

I commented to Caz on the way back that we are fortunate that Abu Dhabi does manage to attract world class sports and other entertainment, the venues for which are mostly less than 15 mins from our house - Yas (F1, Concerts), Zayed Sport City (Tennis, Concerts), Abu Dhabi Golf Club (European Tour Championship in a couple of weeks time). If we wanted to go and see these sort of events at home, they would normally be quite a trek.

Best news of the day though.... Watford vs. Portsmouth live on Al Jazira Sports tonight! Yes, get in there! So I am off to watch my team live from Watford, in Abu Dhabi - doesn't get any better!

World Championship Golf

Caz had a class today so I had to make myself scarce from the house. It was tough, but I went to the World Championship Golf in Dubai (Race to Dubai). I met up with some of the guys form work and we had a great day watching some fantastic golf in the sunshine. The Earth course is lovely and I am hoping I get chance to play it one day.

This is Paul Casey warming up on the practice ground.......

...and Miguel Ángel Jiménez - between cigars!



Lee Westwood (current World no.1 and last year’s winner) shaking hands with Ian Poulter on the 1st tee.





And this is what they were playing for ..... oh and a truck load of money!



Ghastly golf!

Much against my better judgement I accepted an invitation to play golf yesterday, teeing off at 3pm. Mistake. School boy error of the highest order.

Yesterday at 3pm it was 46C here. Humidity; c. 85%. Bad, bad mistake.

The idea was that we would play 9 holes. Both of us had had enough after 7. It was the most horrible, disgusting, sweaty round of golf I have ever had.

Some of my mates at work play all through the summer, mainly teeing off early in the morning, but even then it is very hot and would still be an unpleasant experience.

I am very much a fair weather golfer, here and at home.

So. Golf in the summer here. For me, never again!

Having said that, the course we chose is quite nice. I played it once before with a work friend, but that time under floodlights. It was difficult to form much of an opinion of the course as you couldn’t really see very much - including my ball! Yesterday you could see that the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club course (formally the Golf and Equestrian Club) is actually quite a calm oasis in the middle of the city island. The course is surrounded by a horse racing track, the whole place looks pretty well looked after and there is a nice clubhouse, bar and restaurant.

From this location it was really good hearing the afternoon prayer call, as you can hear the call from many locations and it bounces around, echoing in the air. It reminded me of hearing the prayer call when we were in the mountains at Hatta.

The pictures below don’t really do the place justice. They were just taken on my phone....

Golf

Today I actually played my first round of golf here since arriving! I played at The Abu Dhabi Golf Club which recently hosted a PGA tournament with some of the top European players. I played 18 holes (10-27; tee offs are staggered) with the CTO from one of my customers.

It certainly beats playing golf in the UK in February! The buggy was air-conditioned and had GPS on board showing the hole layouts and distances etc. We tee'd off at 7am which meant I had to miss out on my lie in on a Saturday - Caz said I was not entitled to moan about this as it was for pleasure reasons! It started off a very pleasant temperature and got warmer, but also windier. The wind got up so much that the atmosphere got very sandy and a bit unpleasant really. The first 9 holes were best forgotten, but the back 9 I didn't do too badly on (45 shots) - but I definitely need some more practice I reckon, so going to look for more opportunities to play.

Golf Championship

Managed to drag myself out of bed to go and watch the Golf. I'd already bought the ticket so thought I'd better not waste it, even if the thought of staying in bed was strong! Actually, the ticket price wasn't too bad, AED125 (just over 20 quid). I'm glad I went though it was good. There weren't too many people there so I was able to get up quite close to the players at the tees and greens. I bumped into a few guys from work so I walked round with them most of the day. Some of the top European guys were there such as Casey, Harrington, Garcia, Stenson etc. Even old grumpy Montgomery was there, but actually he seemed quite jovial - maybe he's got another new girlfriend! Treated myself to a new cap as you can see. Caz hates me wearing old tatty ones so hopefully she will approve.



Came away quite tired from all the walking and drove home. When I got in the car I realised I'd caught the sun and as I had been wearing sun glasses all day, had quite a red nose in a neat sunglasses shape! I not sure it shows too well on the photo but click it and see. Didn't shave today either......