Well, that was a good week for the start of my 2024 year.
I shot a final round of 68, three under par to finish on 11 under par and in 10th place in the $2.5 million Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek Resort.
I have been in 10th place since Friday night. It feels like I have been there even longer. I did not make any moves at all up the leaderboard over the weekend – but equally, I did not move down. In this quality field, I will take confidence from this statistic.
It is still very early in a very long season.
To be honest I played quite well all week. My game is, in my opinion, on track – I just could not seem to get the ball close enough to the hole with my approach play.
I did not just get any momentum going and I did not make enough birdies all week – pure and simple. The putting felt good but I just did not make enough putts from 20 feet plus – the statistics show that you do not hold many of those in a round.
I take away some positives from this week… I put it down to brushing off the cobwebs from my winter break.
If you had told me on Wednesday that I would shoot 70, 67, 68 and 68 – I would have taken it and not gone out to play.
I was not hitting it that well early in the week.
So that is my first week of the year ticked off. A 30-minute drive to Emirates Golf Club is a bonus to my next tournament. No flights to different time zones, which is the norm.
I ended up signing autographs for a few Polish guys from the gallery just outside the scoring area. Golf is certainly growing amongst the Poles, which I am very proud of. That would not have happened just a few years ago.
A day off with no balls hit tomorrow. I do though have a few media and sponsor responsibilities at Emirates Golf Club which is all part of the job.
I will play nine holes on Tuesday and then it is the Pro-Am on Wednesday. That is my preparation for a Thursday first round this coming week.
The HERO Dubai Desert Classic on the Majlis is a ROLEX Series event boasting a prize fund of $9 million, a large number of Race to Dubai and OWGR points. I am targeting the bigger events this year, and the ROLEX Series events are just that.
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You never have a choice on where you play well but a big week would set me up for my journey on the PGA Tour.
Thank you for all your support.
See you next week if you can make it.
Adrian Meronk is 30 years old and from Poland, a Dubai resident and a four-time winner on the DP World Tour.