Are you going to win the Open, David?

David Park, the PGA golf professional at Awali Golf Club, is looking forward to the 45th Bahrain Open Golf Championship that will take place on March 14 and 15 and he fancies his chances of glory again.

The 31-year-old Scot, who hails from Wishaw, near Glasgow, looks back at his time mastering the sandy course which is a tricky task to tackle as newcomers to the club quickly find out.

A top quality field is expected to take part in the two-day 36-hole event with the organisers expecting more than 100 competitors from Bahrain, around the Gulf and overseas - including several professional players.

There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, best net, best gross and others. A car will also be offered for the first hole-in-one.

Nasser Yaqoob Saleh won last year's competition with a gross 146 with Hamad Mubarak Al Afnan and David, finishing second and third respectively - two shots behind the winner.

The pressure is on, as David reveals ... I arrived in Bahrain for my first stint at Awali Golf Club as a young assistant professional from the famous Turnberry Hotel on the west coast of Scotland in October 1999 - little did I know then that eight years on I would still be returning to Awali.

I heard the term 'Awali dinosaur' being used when I first arrived, does that include me now that I have been coming for so long?

Over the years I have seen many people come and go from what is a very busy little club, but I guess that is expat life.

Along the way I have met some really nice people and I hope, alongside their hard work and practice, that through my coaching I have brought some success to my pupils.

I believe that we can all keep improving our golfing skills with the proper amount of practice ... even our current captain Joe Leese has managed to take shots off his handicap over the years!

When I first arrived I was involved in coaching lots of juniors at Awali - the club can proudly boast about its junior programme, not only has it produced some low handicappers, but believe it or not, at the last count, four PGA professionals - Paul McLean who now works at Bowood in England, Laurence Brotheridge now attached to a David Leadbetter golf academy in the USA, James Field who is just starting his PGA training in the USA and, most recently, Mathew Chalmers who has just left Bahrain to start as a PGA professional at Royal Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

All these guys came through the junior programme at Awali.

Every year I have been here I get asked the same question from just about every member and pupil.

This question usually gets asked at the start of March.

Here it is: "So David, are you going to win the Bahrain Open this year?"

To which, I have always replied: "Of course, I am!"

Unfortunately, I have only been correct in my prediction once, in 2004. I did apparently win it in style - with a record margin - but I would love to win it again ... even by one stroke!

It means a lot to me, it's such a nice feeling winning any golf tournament, but the Bahrain Open was the one that I had to get. I am not happy with just one though.

I am obviously hungry to win this year's Bahrain Open but I know the competition will be as tough as ever. With the temporary closure of Riffa Views everyone has had to adapt their game to playing sand golf again; maybe there could be a new record set this year with the strong field that is expected to play.

When I arrived at Awali, it was definitely my first experience of 'desert golf'. Coming from the glorious green grass fairways of Turnberry it certainly proved to be a sharp learning curve.

Ashok, the barman, gave me a mat to play off. I am glad I didn't pay for it because I certainly couldn't use it much afterwards! I hit it further than the ball with my first shot ... a shot everyone reading this can own up to, I am sure?

This has been a fascinating time for most of Bahrain's golfers. Just over the road from us we have the construction of the soon-to-open Riffa Views. I think everyone in Bahrain is looking forward to the opening of the course; it is always nice to have a few different courses to play. From what I have seen of the Colin Montgomerie-designed course, it is going to be a much different golf course than the one that once stood there.

It will certainly add a new dimension to golf in Bahrain and with the proposed Ernie Els course, in the south of the island; we will be spoilt for choice.