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The images of the Riffa Views Invitational Tournament to mark the official opening of the Colin Montgomerie course at the Royal Golf Club are still very fresh in the mind. It was a marvellous event for everyone involved and a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
The past year has been a strangely quiet one for many of our active golfing community so it was great to be back in the golf club environment, catching up with many smiling faces happy at the prospect of being back out on the course.
The event provided us with the opportunity to see up close four of the best current exponents of our great game in the world playing the new Colin Montgomerie course, including the course architect himself.
There are not many other places in the world where the golfing public get the chance to walk the fairways with these great players, have the opportunity to take part in clinics with them, get pictures and autographs with their heroes or hear valuable insights into how they prepare and play the game.
At a major event, the players are in 'tournament mode' and will rarely acknowledge the crowd until the end, let alone stop for a chat!
For some players, the large crowds, even though they are there to support, can sometimes affect them adversely by distracting them or putting them off from their shots and they then occasionally react by making their feelings known. It is for this that many players, unfortunately, get a bad reputation.
Our course, Montgomerie has had his fair share of negative press over the years, usually for staring down a cameraman or asking crowds for quiet. There is no doubt as to his golfing credentials, his record speaks for itself. If anyone in Bahrain had the opinion that he is an unpleasant or rude man ahead of the Riffa Views Invitational due to this negative press in the past and then attended the event, they will definitely have changed their minds now.
All four of our golfing superstar guests were in a relaxed mood the entire week. They were all highly approachable and willing to pose for pictures or autographs with the public.
For me, though, Montgomerie was the most impressive personality on show. I was lucky enough to spend a significant amount of time with him during the week while looking after the players at the practice range, hosting a Q&A session with the players at the Academy and, of course, following the skins game around the course.
I have met quite a few famous players over the years, but as far as public speaking, entertaining and commanding an audience, Montgomerie takes some beating. His real life persona is so different to the way he is perceived by many; due mainly to the bad press he gets. Now I'm not completely blaming the press here! Sometimes he has brought it on himself by the odd badly timed comment that maybe he should have kept inside, but as with many of our great sportsmen the press just loves to shoot them down. From the moment he arrived at the club on Thursday morning he endeared himself to everyone around by his relaxed manner.
The design of the new course is something he is very proud of, and so he should be - I certainly haven't seen a better layout in the region, and, given time to mature, the golfers of Bahrain are in for a treat every time they step out on to the fairways.
From Bahrain Monty travelled to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Open before moving on to China to defend the World Cup title he won so impressively with Mark Warren for Scotland 12 months ago.
Even though he has been struggling for form this year, Monty is aiming to extend his playing career for at least another seven years in the belief that he can still gain a first major title - the only thing missing from his resume.
He is exempt on the European Tour until 2015 and has reiterated his desire to play at least until then.
The first aim for Monty is to regain a place in the top 50 of the world rankings to gain entry into all the major championships.
The early signs are good with a tied 15th finish in Hong Kong amongst a strong field an indication that there could well be many more good years left for Bahrain's friend Colin Montgomerie and fingers crossed, he will win a deserved major championship to complete his career.
