Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
If your name is Charl Schwartzel then it has been a pretty good start to 2010.
Back-to-back victories in his homeland of South Africa have ensured a flying start to the season, an early frontrunner in the Order of Merit and perhaps a signal that this year this promising young player will take a step up the rankings.
With all due respect to the Royal Trophy, the Joburg Open and the European Tours habit of making New Year a month or so early, the 2010 season really begins this week in Abu Dhabi as the Race to Dubai road show rolls into town for the Desert Swing.
The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship provides an impressive start to the Desert Swing and within a short span of four years since the tournament began it has established itself as one of the most anticipated stops on the European Tour international schedule.
Many of Europe's top players will be starting their 2010 campaigns this week, including Robert Karlsson, Europe's number one player in 2008, as he looks to recapture the winning form that made him a firm European Tour favorite.
The imposing 6ft 5in world number 28 missed much of last season with an eye injury but the powerful 40-year-old is keen to recover his form at the UAE capital's showcase.
Karlsson, who was part of the 2006 and 2008 Ryder Cup teams, is Sweden's most prolific European Tour champion, having notched up seven titles in his two-decades long professional career.
Despite setbacks in 2009, Karlsson ended up finishing joint second in November's Mission Hills World Cup with Swedish partner Henrik Stenson, the current world number eight, having just lost out to Italy by a single stroke. Karlsson, who finished tied 11th last year, is looking forward to playing alongside Stenson again in Abu Dhabi.
Karlsson is among an impressive 126-strong Abu Dhabi Golf Championship 2010 field, which includes top English duo, Lee Westwood, the world number four, and two-time Abu Dhabi Champion and world number eight, Paul Casey - returning to defend his championship title and aiming to lift the coveted 'Falcon' trophy for the third time.
They'll face tough competition from Australian world number nine, Geoff Ogilvy; Northern Ireland's young-gun and world number 10, Rory McIlory and Spanish sensation and world number 13 Sergio Garcia.
It all makes for an exciting tournament and a fine beginning to the Desert Swing. From Abu Dhabi the Tour moves on to Qatar and the Qatar Masters at the Doha Golf Club, reputed as the toughest of the desert courses where Alvaro Quiros will defend his title.
Believe me, Doha is a tough prospect, a fine golf course and a fair challenge which was made to look easy last year with an outstanding display of golf from the world's finest players.
To complete the series of tournaments in the desert, Emirates Golf Club is the venue once more for the Dubai Desert Classic, rightly called the jewel in the European Tour's international schedule.
Such has been the strength of the field in the past few years, the tournament holds immense prestige.
The tournament will miss Tiger Woods as he continues his 'recuperation' and will not be able to win back the title he won in such dramatic fashion from Ernie Els two years ago.
McIlroy will be out to defend his title and the strongest field of all of the Desert Swing will provide a fitting finale to a three-week festival of golf in the region.
Enjoy!
