After finishing up at the previous week’s DP World Tour Championship we decided to stay on for a short family vacation and enjoy the many delights that Dubai has to offer. It was a good decision; we had a great time.
Before we’d left England to go to Dubai the guys from Ernie Els Design were able to pay me a visit at Wentworth and present me with the trophies (pictured below) from our recent accolades at the World Golf Awards. The Els Club Teluk Datai (pictured above) was voted not only ‘Asia’s Best New Golf Course’ but also the ‘World’s Best New Golf Course’. It doesn’t get much better than that! Thanks again to everyone on the voting panel.
Anyway, after our vacation we flew from Dubai to England for a few days and I made sure I took in the final Springboks autumn international against Wales. It was a shame to see them lose and obviously a very uncomfortable experience watching our captain Jean de Villiers sustain such a nasty knee injury; luckily he’s as tough as they come and we wish him a speedy recovery. It just wasn’t our day, but well done to Wales. It was a very physical encounter and in the end they probably deserved the win. All in all, this series of autumn internationals was wonderful entertainment for anyone who loves top-class rugby.
Of course, amid all the great sporting action last week we had the truly horrible news about the passing of Phillip Hughes, just a few days after he’d been struck on the head by a cricket ball. Genuine tragedies such as this are mercifully rare across all sports, but that doesn’t lessen the shock and impact when it does happen. It was such a sad day for cricket and for sport in general. Of course, our hearts go out to the Hughes family, his friends and his teammates, all of whom must be suffering terribly.
Moving on to this week, we’ll be in Florida before travelling to Thailand at the weekend for my final event of 2014. It’s been a busy season involving a lot of tournament golf, so around now and for most of December and into early January is the time to relax and spend some quality time with Liezl and the kids. That’s the main reason we’ve taken the hard decision to not play the Nedbank Challenge this year. I get such wonderful support there from the fans and I will miss this great event. But as I say, it’s important to spend as much time as I can with the family before the 2015 season goes into full swing. Every year that always comes round quicker than you think.
One last thing to mention is that today is Cyber Monday and if you shop with @amazonsmile, Amazon will make a donation to Els for Autism. So if you’re in the mood for some early festive shopping you’ll be doing good for the autism community. Our thanks to anyone who has already been online and supported this initiative.
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