It was a nice two weeks in South Africa, away from the horrible weather at home and into the sunshine. I know this will sound silly but at times it was too hot, at times it reached 40's at Leopard Creek.

My first week didn't get off to a great start after what seemed like days traveling to get to Nelspruit, we got to our room at 6pm and within the first two hours we had two power cuts and our first animal sighting of the week, a hand sized scorpion! Luckily there was someone able to remove it from our room. We stayed there for a couple of nights and changed to the main tournament hotel, as it was only five minutes from golf club instead of forty-five minutes, which with the early starts makes a big difference.

Leopard Creek is separated from Kruger National Park by Crocodile River, which tells you how close the wildlife is. We took full advantage of the location by going on some game drives into the park, two morning drives where we saw a variety of animals including warthogs, zebra, elephant, giraffe, wildebeest, impala, waterbok, buffalo, white rhino and black rhino which is one of the rarest animals to see, so this was quite a treat.

We also did an evening drive where we saw three lionesses and ended the evening searching with spotlights where we came across a herd of elephants at the river just as we were crossing the bridge to return to our lodge.

In Africa there are a "Big Five" of animals, this is based on the hardest five to hunt, they are elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and black rhino. We were lucky enough to see four of the five so will have to come back to find the elusive leopard. It is pure luck on a game drive what you find, as all week everyone was comparing sightings on the range and everyone seemed to be missing something.

There were also a number of animals on the course, there were lots of monkeys around the clubhouse and on the 11th fairway, there were a couple of crocodiles, but the best part was "Harry" the Hippo, as the members have named him in the lake at the 16th.

The golf course was nice, but it becomes spectacular because of its location. I didn't play great this week as I really struggled off the tee, which is rare for me, I was 5 over par through eight holes and feared the worst but managed an eagle, birdie, and eagle run around the turn, which just shows you how quickly things can change. During the week I improved off the tee but things didn't feel quite right and this showed in my scores. I was in a decent position half way through my third round but had a bad finish; on Sunday it was much the same.

Taking the positives, after three weeks at home with little opportunity to do any proper practice and a terrible start to the week, it was a cut made and something to build on, the only negative of the week other than the scorpion was that I had some things stolen from my locker at the course, its funny how a golf club with private security everywhere and especially in the locker room they missed someone breaking into my locker.

Monday was spent traveling from Nelspruit to Cape Town. It was only a two and a half hour flight but with long drives at both ends it felt as though we spent the whole day traveling. Arriving into a busy arrival hall to find I had no golf clubs, it made me feel slightly better that the other twenty golfers on the plane had there's missing too, this is mildly funny as one of this weeks sponsors is South African Airways, you would think it would be in their interest for us to have our clubs, but then again... They did arrive late Monday night, and they were delivered to me mid morning on Tuesday so I was able to go to the course to practice, some of the other guys who had to qualify for the tournament weren?t so lucky and had to borrow clubs.

After all the adventures of the week before it seemed like quite a lazy relaxed week, I went out for dinner in Paarl a couple of nights, it is a lovely place, very scenic with the mountains and the vineyards all around and the food is exceptional.

I played nicely for most of the week but finished well down the field. I arrived home Monday lunchtime to the snow that was a nice thirty degree difference over night. I am looking forward to two weeks at home with my family over Christmas. I am pleased with the start to my 2010 season, it was two cuts from two starts and is a nice way to end a very long season.

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year