Inside The Ropes At The 2016 DP World Tour Championship: The Calm Before The Storm!

As I write this, my fellow Skipton members will be making their way to Manchester Airport for their overnight flight to Dubai. Does the DP World Tour Championship know what is heading its way? Well it is about to find out.
Actually all my friends who are on the way to work on this amazing tournament should really have been here for today's Pro-Am which gives all the volunteers who are here on the Tuesday, a chance to work for these golfing gods in a truly relaxed and laid back atmosphere. It is a really terrific day to be volunteering in any role and I have spent the whole day in my six seater golf cart, in the morning ferrying the Professionals and their amateur playing partners from the 9th green to the 10th tee, a not inconsiderable distance in the desert heat. In the afternoon, we had a change and my role together with Jim, my new found cart driving mate for the day was to take the teams from the 18th green to the 1st tee.
For the uninitiated amongst you, Pro-Ams usually take the form of a "shotgun" start where 18 teams tee off at the same time on each of the different holes. At the DPWTC it becomes slightly more complicated because there are far more than 18 teams participating in both the morning and the afternoon sessions, such is the popularity of this end of season finale. The knock on effect of 24 teams playing on just 18 holes is an inevitable lengthening of the time it takes to play and the consequence of this was 5 hour plus rounds in both the morning and afternoon session which saw the final competitors finish the round as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon!
It's testing for the Professionals but giving the privilege of rank amateurs, the chance to play with Europe's top 60 stars is an opportunity too good to be missed. In fact Pro-Ams have become a staple of most tournaments now played worldwide.
Back to my role and clearly with only two golf carts to choose from, the Professional had a 50/50 chance of getting me as their chauffeur! As well as being great golfers, they clearly have long memories as those that had my services last year appeared to be still scarred by the memory and chose Jim's as the chariot of choice!
Sorry, poetic licence reigned for a moment there as I think the true split was half and half and without exception, every single player that I was able to interact with was a pure delight. My recent trip to the Ryder Cup provided a distinct advantage epitomised in the reaction of Sergio Garcia who wanted to know what I thought of the experience. How cool was I to talk about his historic final day match with Phil Mickleson which I had watched in person! Similarly, complimenting Rafa Cabrerra Bello on his outstanding debut performance at Hazeltine led to a lovely embrace and a great photo! Incidentally, the one person I did chauffeur today from the Ryder Cup team but never mentioned the event was Lee Westwood. Discretion prevailed but actually he was terrific and remains one of my true golfing idols and the photo with Lee was the last that I got today as the sun was going down.
Having now attended this event for the last few years and enjoyed every single moment, I am starting to think it has run its course and that I should open the opportunities I have been given to some other golfing fanatic. Perhaps one less verbose than me might be an appropriate choice.
I sign off tonight by giving full kudos and credit to today's Pros. Without exception they have all been fantastic and I am grateful to them for some of the wonderful photos I now hold as a record of this trip.
Tomorrow is a more leisurely practice day at The Earth Course but the Skipton Mafia are coming! Take cover Dubai!