Hello there, it’s been a while since my last blog to say the least. So what’s been going on? Well quite a lot really, last year I made the decision to leave ISM after 19 years and follow my good friend Stuart Cage to Octagon golf. Hence the new website, a simpler version you will notice but it’s mainly there to host this blog and allow anyone to get in touch with questions should you wish to.

I could go into a brief history of 2014 on a golfing front but lets leave it at this, I made the DP World Tour Championship for the second year in a row but it was an average year and would only make an average read.

Off the course things have been a little more exciting. In case you are new to my world, I am still married to the wonderful Emily, and we have three children, Freddie, Charlie and Sam. Freddie has been playing golf for 18 months which isn’t bad considering he is not yet 3 years old and Charlie and Sam, our one year old twins, have yet to take up the game. However as Charlie walked on his own for the first time today I expect he will probably hit his first shots tomorrow.

So life is pretty darn hectic. The twins have not slept through once yet in the entire first year of their lives, and they don’t seem that bothered about it which is nice for them at least.

We live in Dubai during the winter in our apartment which we bought ‘pre children’, therefore our living room looks like a cross between a sports hall and a recently ransacked soft play centre. I shouldn’t moan though because three weeks ago on a Tuesday, Emily and I had a nice break together, we spent 76 seconds on the sofa in perfect silence before one of the boys kicked off again. It really was a lovely break, just what we needed. Thank god we have our wonderful nanny, Anna, or we would be well and truly screwed. Three under three is no mean feat.
Oh one other thing has changed since we last spoke, (you and I that is, not the wife and I), and that is that I no longer eat bread, well to be more precise ‘wheat products’. I had some advice from Novac Djokovic the tennis legend and I thought I’d give it a go. Actually that’s not true, I was speaking to a colleague who said he was off wheat and I asked him why and he said because Novac had had great success coming off wheat, so he thought he would give it a go and see what happened. I said “I didn’t know you knew Novac?” to which he replied “well I don’t, my mate read it in his biography.” So not quite direct advice from the worlds number one tennis player but anyway,
the result is a mate of mine whose mate read a book, said to him “try coming of wheat and see how you feel”, so he did and he mentioned it to me, so I did and do you know what, I do feel better.
Most people talk about one of the effects of coming off wheat and gluten is having more energy and, after 8 months off of it, I am officially still absolutely knackered. It seems gluten is no match for one year old twins on the energy front. However I am thinner and fitter than i have been for quite some time so I am entering my 20th season on The European Tour, fit and ready to rumble.

That season is well underway now and I’m off to a shocker to put it bluntly. A really poor ball striking week in Abu Dhabi was nearly saved by an amazing short game display but alas a horrible finish saw me miss the cut by one.

That has just been followed up by a hugely improved ball striking display here in Qatar matched with a dismal putting performance which resulted in another missed cut. The disappointment level of that only to fall even further when I was informed by the wife that I am now going to an organic market in the morning instead playing round 3 of the Qatar Masters. However there is light at the end of the tunnel and that light is shining brightly after this ball striking display so I’m looking forward to the Dubai Desert Classic, my home from home tournament. The Classic owes me a good week I feel and there is no better time to produce it than next week.

If my youngest little boy can take his first few steps on his own then I don’t see why this seasoned old pro cant get the 2015 season off and running. Thanks for reading and following my progress, I vow to make this somewhat regular seeing as I have so much time on my hands.