How I'm plotting out my year

SETTING out your schedule for the year can be a tricky business what with the seemingly non-stop succession of superb tournaments on the European Tour. Last year I played in 26 tournaments, not including the qualifiers for the Majors, and will follow a similar path in 2008. If all goes to plan, though, there may be one or two very welcome additions to
the calendar.

Dubai has had its fair share of headlines in recent weeks, and I managed to create one or two of my own last year after opening with a brace of 65s, so the Gulf Swing should represent a real chance of some high finishes. Qatar is supposedly quite long, which suits me just fine, and The Emirates in Dubai got last year off to a flyer for me. You may remember I spent the weekend in the company of Messrs Woods and Els, and that really helped me to find my feet on the tour.

It will mean a lot of time away from home, which is never ideal particularly when you’ve only been married a few months, but the rewards could be well worthwhile. I’m not one for sitting down and working out how the world ranking points are calculated but three top-10s, with maybe one or two top-five finishes in the next few weeks, may be enough to get me into the first World Golf Championship event, the Accenture World Match Play. And if that was the case, then the Masters would become a real possibility!

You want to play well all year but, obviously, the tournaments held in Great Britain and Ireland hold special significance and the run of the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship and Celtic Manor Wales Open is a three-week period where I need to be playing at my best.

My caddy, Adam, is very positive and encouraging and he says ‘it’s not a question of when you win the PGA but how many are you going to win’ so that is a big confidence boost and a victory at Wentworth (my home course) would be very high on my wish list for 2008. I proved, over three rounds last year, that I have the game for the West Course and to win on your home track would be something special.

Wales will also be interesting with the move to the new Twenty Ten course, venue for the Ryder Cup in 2010, and hopefully it might suit my game a bit more than the shorter Roman Road track. Other highlights will be the second run of home-based events in July, culminating with the Open Championship and, having experienced the thrill of teeing it up at Carnoustie, I will be going all out to make it to Royal Birkdale.

The following month will also see me defend my KLM Open title, following my rollercoaster victory at Kennemer, so that will also bring back a few special memories. There is plenty to look forward to but one particular treat will be making my debut on the PGA Tour in the AT and T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Poppy Hills and Spyglass Hill would be good enough but to play Pebble Beach will see a dream realised. I have never been lucky enough to play any of them though I have sat through countless rounds at Pebble Beach on my computer. I see it worked for Daniel Chopra in the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua so who knows?

Coming the week after Dubai there may not be enough time for a practice round on all three so we may walk Spyglass and Poppy Hills and have a round at Pebble Beach – it would be rude not to! Form-wise it is difficult to predict but my sessions with my coach Kristian Baker at Wentworth went great after three weeks without picking up a club over the festive period. I had a couple of days hitting balls on my own and then spent four days with Kristian and he’s pleased with what we’re doing. We’ll spend a lot of time honing the short game so everything should be in place for an exciting month ahead.

There has already been plenty of talk in the media about a certain event in Kentucky in September and it is difficult not to let your mind get carried away by thoughts of a dream Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla, particularly having made a promising start to the qualifying campaign.

As I write this I am sitting 15th on the World Points List, and 11th on the European one, so it’s great to be there or thereabouts but, needless to say, there is a long, long way to go. That said, if I was still in contention as the race hots up to make Nick Faldo’s side there may be one or two changes to the original schedule!

I look forward to bringing you up to date with my efforts in the Gulf as well as my debut on the PGA Tour next month.