New Year, New Start

We arrived in Florida on New Years day to chilly weather as a cold snap went through town, although it was still considerably warmer than home where there was snow. I played a couple of games one was with some of the members who are convinced any success I have will be because of their advice, the main thing they teach me each time I play is how to laugh.

The trip from Orlando to Hawaii on Sunday was longer than I had expected. We got up at 3.30am and eventually got to our hotel at 8pm, and we had traveled backwards 5 more hours, putting us 10 hours behind the UK.

As we flew into Honolulu we flew over some of the other islands and over Pearl Harbour, on the drive to the hotel it reminded me of Hong Kong bright lights, sky scrappers and houses on the sides of hills. The resort we are staying at was jumping when we arrived it lived up to its billing of a "Hawaiian village" there are seven hotels on the property, we have a room with a gorgeous view of the ocean, although I don't get to far onto the balcony as its a long way down from 27th floor!

On Monday I was at the course for 7am, with the time difference I had been awake for a few hours. On the PGA tour caddies aren't allowed into the locker rooms, so I spent some time organizing my things and I registered. After some breakfast overlooking the ocean I met my new caddy Ron Levin on the putting green. Ron has been on tour for twenty-one years and has caddied for many great players; the highlight of his career was winning The Open with Todd Hamilton at Troon in 2004. I played the back nine with a couple of other players and managed to squeeze in another four holes of the front nine before the course closed for the 11am shotgun pro-am.

Tuesday I got to the course bright and early again and played 18 holes with Chad Campbell, Alejandro Canizares and John Senden. It was nice to talk with Chad and his caddie as they both went to Midland Junior College like me.

On Wednesday I went to Mid-Pacific golf club to play the Sony off site pro-am. It was a lovely day, we rode carts and I had a fun team. I had a great day with my team; Anne and Elodie came out to watch me during the tournament.

I had an early start on Thursday morning, my schedule was similar to the practice days, a car to the course, breakfast in the clubhouse and onto the range and hour before my tee time. I played with Todd Demsey and Mitsuhiro Tateyama. Tateyama had an amazing yellow and black zebra print golf bag with pink writing! I played well and was pleased with my score of 66, 4 under par but felt that I had opportunities for it to be better.

On Friday I played in the second last group, the wind had picked up and was gusty for the first twelve holes. I got off to a scrappy start with a couple of quick swings on the first but settled down well and had a number of opportunities on the back nine to move forward. I was pleased with my 36 hole total of 4 under par and was looking forward to the weekend.

Unfortunately I woke up on Saturday morning not feeling well and this got worse very quickly. I tried to warm up on the range but was unable to play and reluctantly had to withdraw from the tournament. After a visit to a local Doctor a diagnosis of food poisoning was given. I spent Saturday in bed and was considerably better Sunday so that I could travel home. I am extremely disappointed that I had to withdraw after putting myself into such a good position.

I'm not playing at the Bob Hope next week but I'm planning to be at the Buick the week after. Thank you to everyone who has been sending messages of support, I really do appreciate it.