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I wanted to calm down before writing this blog, being brutally honest it is the worst start to a season that I can remember and due to my performance, I am not playing the 1st World Golf Championship this week. Started the year 48th in the world and now slipped to 58th ……. just not acceptable, anyway more of that later in the blog.
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
I felt good heading into the desert swing, great preparation work at home on the range and putting drills.
The weekend I left @lukepoults24 played in the #seanfoleyjr @ajagolf; got off to a bad start, came back strong in the middle but a poor outward 9 on the last day let him down. We also decided to add to the family with a friend for Bentley and Enzo,now on the waitlist!
Really strong field for this week and paired with @tyrellhatton & @mattfitz94 for the first 2 days.
I am continuing this year with my trouser design and grateful and honoured to be wearing @racingstewart tartan, huge thank you to @sirjacketstewart & @markstewart. I am also wearing some great design shoes this year from the new NOMAD range from @footjoy , these shoes were auctioned off for charity after I wore them on www.charitystars.com for the prevention of infectious diseases.
A 1st rd. of 71 was not a disaster but the putter just started to mis-behave, sadly a theme that continued to play out the next 3 weeks……., however the 2nd rd. was just a shocker, could not believe I played so bad, ball striking was ok but when you keep on missing putts the pressure mounts and finally it become too much, take a look at the score card!
So, what to do after missing the cut and having to stay in the bubble until we moved to Dubai, give @terrymundy66 a haircut ha-ha, best of all unbeknown to us the film crew where down below the balcony and decided to film it!
Dubai Desert Classic
On to Dubai and looking forward to a better week, started off by having some fun switching roles between player and caddy, you have no idea how nervous I was watching Terry on the range hitting my driver, just 1 mishit off the top and that would have been the end of a beautiful relationship! https://Youtu.be/W_Kyn5oE0DQ
One of the down sides being on the other side of the world is missing birthday’s, Joshua is growing so quickly. It was also great to catch up with Ahmed Skaik who I have been mentoring since last year through my relationship with @DP_World, he is really making good progress and there is a bright future for the development of golf in the UAE.
Unfortunately, an opening 76 left a lot of work to do on Friday but I went deep and pulled it back even with a double on 9, a 3ft birdie on 18 would have made the cut, ahh my putting woes continued. When you miss 2 cuts in a row it can get you down so its important to have something to take you mind off the situation and we had some great fun filming a clip called ‘Knowing me, knowing you’. https://youtu.be/MszbwYeVyGE My team is working on building up content on my YOUTUBE channel; Ian James Poulter so take a look and subscribe.
Continuing the light-hearted mood, you all remember the prank @henrikstenson played on me at the DP World Championship, well he decided to continue this time with my laundry before leaving for Saudi………
Saudi International
Last week of the Desert Swing and under pressure to break the duck, off to a steady start Thursday and Friday comfortably making the cut. Saturday was one of those days where my ball striking was just PURE, honestly, I cannot describe how it felt, only once again for the putter to go cold on me. So frustrating and 4 rd.’s in the 60’s left me in a position for T18. Guess what I am looking for during this down time………. Another birthday missed and our eldest turns 19.
So back home and time to move on and hey what better way than to take your 16-year-old son to play Augusta National for the first time. Luke had a rough start on the first 4 holes but shot 1 under par for the next 14, a day I will never forget and enormous thank you to our dear friend Lou Holtz for hosting us.
I had these couple of weeks to work on my game, test new putters which turns out not to be the arrow but the Indian! Excited to start again with a 4 week stretch; Puerto Rico Open, Arnold Palmer Mastercard, The Players and Honda Classic. Lots of world ranking points available to get back inside the top 50.
You may have been following the pranks with @henrikstenson on our instragram , up to now he is 3-0 but boy I really got him back big time with this one, had a lot of fun putting it together. It will not finish here for sure…….. watch this space!
Until next time!
Poults
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