Pic: Getty images
As I write I'm halfway through my trip home from Korea sitting in the Emirates lounge in Dubai airport with what feels like half the European Tour all taking the same route home. Ian Poulter has been tweeting his way through his journey back to the States and is now in New York. He will be in his house on the same day he finished the tournament, despite travelling halfway round the world. Crazy.
I think I must have lost about a stone the past couple of weeks in Asia, and if I see another grain of rice when I get home I think it will top me off. That aside, I really do enjoy the course we played last week, Blackstone Golf Club. If you are ever in that area and fancy a game I would recommend it. But think twice about trying to join. It will cost you $1 million, plus an annual fee on top.
I had treatment every day on my back last week and took anti-inflammatory tablets. It really started to improve nicely to the point where I could start getting through the ball again, but I just didn't really score as well as some of the golf that I played. I battled my way to a lower total after two days and was feeling good going into the weekend.
It's a course where you need a few 3-woods off the tees and into par-fives, so my caddie and I had been taking either the 3-iron or the 5-wood out of the bag, depending on tee positions and the weather.
On Saturday he said let's take the 5-wood out and put the 3-iron back in. I said yeah, that sounds good. When I got to the first green I looked in my bag to see the 5-wood cover. Oh dear. The 3-wood had gone into the locker, one of the vital clubs for this particular course.
Big mistake. That meant on one hole I couldn't reach the fairway because it's too narrow to hit a driver, and the tee shot off the 18th is a perfect 3-wood, which sets up a real good birdie chance. I struggled to get my head round how my caddie managed this. Surely its absolute basic caddying to make sure the bag is ready to go? I suppose that's just caddies.
To pass the time in the evenings we were lucky to have a big games room in the hotel with table tennis and pool tables. Needless to say, there were some big games going on all week. The biggest was between myself and Simon Hurd against Jamie Donaldson and Danny Willett. The banter was flying back and forth and Willet turned out to be as good as the locals. He should have been on a table of his own.
One of the best things about travelling out to Asia is flying with Emirates on the A380. I've flown on it about 20 times now and every time it's so impressive. You don't realise you are on a plane it's so quiet, and with the hundreds of movies on demand you're spoilt for choice.
Once you get bored with the TV, just head up to the back of the plane and have a few drinks at the bar. Very civilised.
Pity they don't fly to Spain. Not out of Bristol anyway.