I am excited to have been invited by GULF NEWS to share my Daily Diary with all the readers from this week’s $300,000 Abu Dhabi Challenge on the Challenge Tour.

I flew into Abu Dhabi yesterday with my 22 year-old son Jack who has been my caddie since mid-2018.

I will play a practice round this afternoon, with my good friend Lucas Bjerrgaard and Louis Gaughan, a fellow Scot and former junior member at Bathgate Golf Club, who now works at Dubai Hills Golf Club, who qualified to play this week by winning the local Emirates UAE PGA Championship a couple of weeks ago at Jumeirah Golf Estates through an Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) invite - I remember Louis taking up the game as a junior in Scotland in short trousers and waterproofs. Good luck Louis this week, but one bit of advice is under no circumstances beat the old man!

I will then play in the Pro-Am tomorrow (Wednesday) in the 7 am shotgun start and then I am ready for the first round on Thursday.

Very honest golf course

I have always enjoyed the golf course here at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, the National Course designed by Peter Harradine. The course is all in front of you and it is a fair challenge – you get out of it what you put in. It is a very honest golf course.

I have played in 15 of the 16 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championships since its first year here in 2006. I only missed one tournament, the 2015 event, due to injury.

I have never played my best golf in Abu Dhabi over the years, possibly due to this traditionally being the first event of my year coming straight from Scotland, which is not famous for having ideal weather for practice and preparation in January. My best finish here over the years was tied eighth in 2014 won by Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal. My best round over the National Course is a 65 in the third round in 2009 won by Paul Casey.

This was always by default almost been a warm-up for the next week on the traditional calendar, the Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club, where I was fortunate to win the Dubai Desert Classic in both 2013 and 2014. I am a proud Honorary Life Member of Emirates Golf Club thanks to these victories.

I have been casting my eye through the entry list for this week.

I have tried not to notice, but I am ‘perhaps’ the oldest player in the field. I am looking positively at this week, and I am convincing myself that I am the ‘most experienced’ player in the field!

My last visit to Abu Dhabi Golf Club was in January earlier in the year for the HERO Cup, where GB & I played the Continent of Europe, where I enjoyed doing some on-course commentary work.

This season I am planning to play on the DP World Tour with a few invites and a few events I am exempt to play in, the Challenge Tour as well as to continue to expand my TV work with both on-course and ‘in the box’ for Sky Sports having apparently, I hope, passed my interview and probation.

Falcon design

The club in Abu Dhabi has, perhaps, one of the top 10 most famous clubhouses in the golfing world with the Falcon design. It really has stunning architecture.

There are so many reminders around the club of the legendary golfers who have won the Falcon Trophy or competed in the Abu Dhabi HSBC tournament. I have looked at the records on dpworldtour.com and I came up with no less than 37 major winners who have played the tournament. Included in the list is: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Ernie Els, Justin Rose and my fellow Scot Paul Lawrie. It really is a ‘Who’s Who of World Golf’ over the last few years.

Wish me luck in the Pro-Am tomorrow and speak to you all soon. I will report back on how I am playing and how the golf course looks and plays.

Stephen Gallacher - is a 48 year-old Scot, has won four times on the DP World Tour, including both the 2013 and 2014 Dubai Desert Classic