Golf Premier Event; Fajara Golf Club, Palm Wine Tasting in The Gambia

Forget the Beaujolais run, or the Ryder cup. A trip to the Gambia's premier Golf Club at Fajara will give you stories to dine out on at any golf club event. Excuse the jumpy footage, but it is short and its worth a view and I reckon this footage will do more to sell Fajara Golf Club to the avid golfer than any pro name attached to the design of the course. The course itself is 'testing' but the caddys and club pros are excellent value. My 3 boys all had private lessons and much fun with their partners.

Its a bit like going to a dry slope before going skiing; if you can start stop and stay on your feet on the dry slope you will be doing slalem on your second day on the real snow. Likewise with golf at Fajara; There will be none of this frustration and smashing of expensive clubs against trees with my boys. Golf is great when you hit a ball well and it all comes together for you, but in between we will chat and laugh with Gambian friends and have a good time. Nothing too serious. We can all be who we want-"I'm Tiger Woods" " I'm not going to be Payne Stewart" etc How many people can say they learned how to play golf at West Africas premier Golf course.

After a pleasant morning on the course and before a drink in the club house (or dip in the pool for the boys) you go to the bottom of the course to where the palm wine collectors are. There you can sample the wine, have a go at climbing the palm to collect your own and have a running commentary as you go. I have edited out our go..its not as easy as it looks.

The Ryder Cup 2008. It Did Its Job For Poulter

Was Tiger missed? Was Monty missed? Did Faldo mess up his couples or his order? Did the USA biased crowd have an impact? Is it sporting? Do the victors care? Whatever. I thought it was about time the US won as I said in my Valhalla blog. Its just not good for the tournament if the Europeans win all the time.

Whichever side of the Atlantic you were cheering from, or whether you listened on BBC Radio 5 live, or watched it on Sky, the Ryder Cup did as it always does; created a wave of new interest in the game and produced some new heroes. There was so much coverage of the wild card choice of Ian Poulter, before the tournament kicked off, that his excellent contribution to the European effort can only spell one thing; I feel the setting up of the Ian Poulter Designer Golf Course Company and Website.

Poulter already has the golf gear designer website and shop,all in a lovely pinky hazy background colour. Now I give him a lot more credit for that design, and definitely the colouring of this range of designer pro gear than, say, The Lily Allen range at New Look. He's got more flair and personality than most at Valhalla. Some lucky Golf course somewhere will soon be advertising The Poulter

WORLD DOMINATION Golf by Numbers

Golf is the most lucrative sport of all.

Stats According to The Independent

6.5 Million Dollars = Vijay Singhs, top of US PGA money list, 2008 winnings.

53 Billion Euros = annual value of golf in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

6.2 Billion Dollars = Spent on golf products in US every year.

18,000 = New golf villas and apartments built in Europe in 2006.

76 Billion Dollars = Gross annual value of golf in the USA every year.

769 Million Dollars = Tiger Woods earnings in 10 years to 2007.
He felt he could afford to take a break this year.)

16,000 = 18 hole golf courses in the USA

35,000 = Golf courses in the world

160 = New golf courses in Europe in 2006

The Tiger Woods, Dubai September 2009

Well if you are going to make use of the pro golfer designer name you have hired you may as well use it to the full. It is billed as 'A private Golf Community, the vision of its namesake' Hmmm. There is a very honest description of the input of the great visionary though; He talked about some of the things he liked most about other courses and the whole design team visited a few, but then they go on to say that Tiger has been very 'hands on'. Now, this could mean anything, but I am pretty sure thats about Tiger giving the nod to designs that are put in front of him. So does it work? If you are looking at golfing holidays are you more likely to book this.If you are buying an off plan villa within a golfing community, are you going to choose The Tiger Woods Dubai over another? Or will it come down to cost, cost of flights, facilities, potential rental income from holiday letting. Does the fact that Tiger Woods Inc. has had a hand in design and has been paid for his name mean quality is quarenteed. Or when you get there, will it be full of name droppers, with status anxiety? Its not going to make your handicap any lower you know.

Having said all that, the hotel, the palaces, the residences and the course would do for me thanks.