Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The great thing about golf is that there is always next week! The bad game at the weekend can be forgotten because there is a chance to put it right the following week.
It is probably this mentality that keeps the majority of professional golfers sane. It helps them to rationalise disappointments and ruinous moments they'd love to have over again. There's always next week and another chance to make up for failure. It's a comfort blanket.
But now we are at the stage of the season where for an increasing number of players on both the European and PGA Tour's there isn't that 'next week'. At both ends of the money lists, the scramble is on either for a place in the season-ending Dubai World Championship or FedEx Cup Playoffs, or at the other end of the scale, time is rapidly running out to avoid the trapdoor of losing a Tour Card and playing rights for next season.
On the US Tour up to 70 players can still qualify for one of the 30 places available in the play-offs and the chance at the $10 million jackpot. For the majority the race is run and they now face the agony of either trying to save their card or a long winter of rebuilding in preparation for next season.
Players like Sergio Garcia wouldn't normally be pleased with a 26th-place finish in a regular tour event - but after an indifferent season when most predicted major success for the Spaniard, last week his closing rounds of 67 and 68 meant more than the prize money he would accrue because he was able to secure his top 70 berth and survive another week. The race is capturing the public's imagination and the player's attention just as much as the major championships.
A significant absentee from the playoffs will be Justin Rose. The consequences of finishing 85th on that list are pretty far-reaching for Rose, a player who in 2007 climbed to number six in the world. Since then it's been all downhill and now he has tumbled out of the all-important top 50.
Rose started the year inside the leading 20 but now he is ranked 57th and his global schedule straddling the PGA and European Tours with guaranteed spots in the majors and WGC events is in some jeopardy. The 29-year-old isn't alone in suffering this sort of decline where the 'next weeks' have failed to yield a significant improvement in fortunes - contemporaries like Adam Scott, Trevor Immelman and Charles Howell know exactly how Rose is feeling.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly why this should be, these are all players from a generation that many expected to produce a genuine rival to Tiger Woods and the truth is none has been able to mount any such challenge. They have all had their moments, but now they need to go back to the basics that got them up there in the first place.
There is always next week, but unless you are riding high in the Top 50 in the world, dictating where you will be playing next week can be out of your hands and not a happy place to be.
However, it does make for good TV!
I can't finish today without saying 'happy birthday' to one of the all-time greats.
Two-time Open champion, Arnold Palmer, celebrated his 80th birthday last week, and while that is cause for celebration in itself, it is a landmark that provides an opportunity to look back on a career that changed the game of golf.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1929, Palmer started playing the game at Bent Creek Country Club either early in the morning or late in the afternoon, whenever the members were not playing.
In 1954, shortly after a three-year stint in the Coast Guard, he was the US amateur champion. And by 1958 he had won the Masters, the first of his seven Major Championship victories.
But it was Palmer's signing as Mark McCormack's first client that would revolutionise the sport. Rather than focusing on tournament victories, the pair instead decided to expose and promote Palmer's character, endurance, reliability and integrity to create a role-model with global appeal. It was a decision which would be cited as the catalyst for the modern game's worldwide popularity.
