Since my last trip out to Asia for Qualifying School in February I’ve been at home for the longest time in quite a while. It’s always good to spend lots of quality time with Eleanor and Geoffrey (the lurcher). I’ve made myself useful back on the farm, helping out when needed and learning new things where I can. I’ve also had a lot of time to work on my golf game despite the weather being particularly chilly and a big focus on my fitness in the gym. The schedule for the ADT ( Asian Development Tour) has been slow to release so I looked for other things to play in to fill my gaps and this lead me to the MENA Tour.
I have fond memories of this tour from back in 2012 when I picked up a victory out in the desert to finish off what I would call a learning year as a rookie in the pro ranks. I noticed that they were putting on back to back events at the Els Club in the Desaru Coast about an hour east of Johour so I got on the case to see if they would give me a spot so I could finally start my 2023 season.
I quite like Malaysia. It used to be a big hub on the Asian tour but since I began my Asian quest a few years ago it has not featured much on their schedules. The food is good and the people are nice and the weather is as expected; roasting hot! For dinner last night we had some local street food called “murtabak”, bloody lovely and cheap! 8 ringgit (£1.50) for a chicken, egg, onion and potato pancake. The locals were queuing up and said that the chef had a secret spice ingredient he wouldn’t give up.
I have to say the MENA tour set up a great test on the golf course with firm conditions and tough pins that most of the time you couldn’t aim at because the ball was hard to stop and you would be faced with some serious up and down challenges. Good strategic play was needed to shoot a score and as always some favouritism from the golfing gods on the greens. I finished up in 8th place, 9 shots behind the winner at 9 under par and a good strong start to my chase of Brooks Koepka . I’m only about $8.5 million behind now.