My golf season finished in Singapore where I missed my second consecutive cut by one shot thereby concluding a very disappointing, frustrating and surprisingly bad year.  I finished 104th on the money list, my first time ever outside the top 100 and I am still trying to figure out why I had such a poor year results wise as I don’t feel my golf was of a very poor standard.  However,  the success or not of the year is very dependant on our big finishes of which I didn’t have any, in general as pro golfers on tour 90% of our prize money/world ranking position comes from 10% of our tournaments.  My biggest cheque this year was around €30,000 and it is very difficult to climb the Order of Merit without big cheques and big finishes. 

I have also been carrying another injury to my left knee in the second half of the season which will require surgery.  I will be having the operation this week and hope to be able to hit balls around Christmas time again in preparation for the new season in 2010.  This will be the sixth operation on my left knee - a legacy of my Gaelic football career before the injury turned me to golf at the age of 19. 

My golf career is still of utmost importance to me and although a lot of people may conclude that my best days are behind me I certainly don’t feel so and still have a huge appetite to play, practice and travel.  What is most disappointing about my injury is the fact I will not be getting to spend as much time with Bob Torrance over the winter period as I had intended, as I feel part of the reason for my poor form this year was not spending enough time with Bob.  I will also be working hard physically on my recovery form my knee operation and will be also doing as much as possible to keep my strength work up over the winter period.

I don’t intend to sit around over the next month and I have been very fortunate in so far as I have been given the opportunity to re-design St Sofia Golf Club in Bulgaria.  I have already made a visit to the course and have built the team around me to carry out the works.  Golf design in a huge passion of mine and one that I have very strong views and opinions on.  My views are very classical and traditional, Harry Colt being my favourite designer who designed Sunningdale, Royal Portrush, Co Sligo, 3 of my most favourite course I have had the pleasure of playing in the world. A lot of his ideas will be incorporated in my re-design at St Sofia along with my strong views on golf shots being visual, fair and risk rewarding.

During this winter period I will also be updating my website and will be able to update you all on my golf design work as it happens. 

I wish you all happy shopping in the weeks leading up to Christmas and I will next update you around Christmas time when hopefully I will be back hitting balls again.

Cheers, Paul.