Dubai Desert Classic...Tiger show...

Well over the weekend was the Desert Classic. I went on friday, got on TV and was in the local paper on the front page....not too bad I would say. We got there at 830ish in the morning and went on a trek to find Erine Els. He is not a hard man to miss as he is a large guy. I had no idea how big he actually is. we followed him for 8-9 holes and it was impressive to watch. He has such a nice swing, smooth and great attitude, nice and chilled out. he did hit a ball right over our heads on the 17th hole. He went for the green it is only 330 yards to cut the corner to get to the green. I would say most of the pros did this. it is unreal to see how much better they are then the regular masses (me). we watched Ernie finish up on 18 and went to go find Tiger. We went to were the crowd was growing, on the practice tee.

It must be a kick in the pants for every other golfer at these events, no one really claps or cheers for anyone else like Tiger. I have heard he is the most recognizable man on the planet, I can see it too. for him to walk on the range. the crowd went nuts, he waved and everyone settled down. The other guys on the tee box must have been rattled by this. Anyway it was amazing to watch is warm up and see how he gets ready for the day. We left the practice green early to get a seat on the first tee to watch the first few group before Tigers go out. So O'mera, Juimenez and Garcia were the three bigger names that went out before Tiger and it was great to see. They were not on form this weekend and did not come close to the leaderboard, although Garcia did go to -5 under on friday and Juminez played great, he is a fun guy to watch golf. Also Colin Montgomery was playing with Tiger on friday. They had some great banter for the day, it was a lot of fun to watch.

So on the second hole Tiger went for the green with a 3 wood, only 356 yard straight away...sick is all i can say. Luckily for me, he mishit and I got a chance to be 3 feet away from him to watch him stub a chip and do it again 10 feet in front of him. I guess ever great ones can make shots like me...ha ha. he still pared the hole though....I may not have done the same. the crowd was starting to get bigger and bigger so we had to start leap froging his shots, so that we could be close to see every second one. We did not get to see too many Tee shots from the tee as a lot of people camped out on the tee and watched all the golfers come through. On the 6th hole Tiger almost hit me with his tee shot so I was close again and to watch him hit a shot out of the trampled down rough, 180+ yards, up hill and within 3 feet of the pin is awe insipring. I am sure I would not even have made the green let alone attack the pin.

It was a lot of fun to be there for the day I do have to say by walk jogging around the golf course for 10 hours it makes for a tiring day. It was a lot of fun to watch Tiger and see the crowds go crazy for him. The one thing even tiger had said was the press photographers were getting annoying they would stand in front of him and take some weird pictures. The whole time I was watching the golf I did keep thinking though that I would much rather be actually golfing the course over watching people golfing the course. even professionals.

I do not do crowds overly well, especially tired so at the end of the day when we could not leave as there was only one way out that was 20 feet wide and 20 000 people were trying to leave at once. It was not a fun experice but again I was tired and kept my cool about the whole thing.

Overall it was an amazing experience and I look forward to going again next year for one day again.

I hope Tiger comes back..

Flooding in Dubai

Yes I am serious, in January we had rain that lasted for a few days and it came down hard enough that cars got stuck on the road and there was massive flooding everywhere. It started in the morning around 5 am and by the time we left for school roads were almost totally under water. It rained all day and being the fact there is no rain sewer lines there was no where for the rain to go. Students started a rumor that we would not have school the next day because of it, it was hard to believe that a bit of rain could shut a city down like Dubai...but sure enough. They were right. They gave us not one day but two days off because of rain...ha ha. the last day we had off was a nice sunny day so we hit the golf course.

I should mention that George Bush came to the city a few days before and gave us a day off as well because of the fact that the military closed the major roads for the whole day. so it was called a national holiday. too funny. there was a bit of concern that with Iran being so close that something may have happened but it was all good except for the fact we could not go anywhere. it was a good day to catch up on some sleep.


so that was the week, out of 5 days we were supposed to work, we worked 2....it is a hard life here in Dubai...