Happy New Year Everyone! We had a great Christmas and one of the best things about it was not having to think about golf – I was home and seeing my friends and family and just completely chilling out and not doing a great deal.

We had a party at the house on Christmas Eve when we had a lot of people round which was good fun. On Christmas Day morning we went over to see Mum’s side of the family as she has loads of brothers and sisters and my cousins and then we called into Holywood Golf Club for an hour to see everyone up there. We had a lovely Christmas dinner that my Mum, her sister Leanne and Holly prepared for us and it was absolutely gorgeous. Thanks girls!

On Boxing Day I played my usual game of football with all the lads from Holywood Golf Club and I was nothing short of horrendous – as well as me being just awful the weather was seriously cold – minus five degrees I think and I must say that it really took my breath away! Then that evening I went down to Dublin to see Ulster play Leinster which was cold but good fun – also went to the Ulster and Munster game and quite a few others over the holidays.

Holly and I went to New York for three days between Christmas and New Year which was awesome – we shopped, shopped and shopped until we dropped and even braved the half hour queue to get into the Abercrombie and Fitch store – but hey it was worth it! I was even having a bit of a panic just in case my credit card got declined for overuse but luckily it worked a treat.

We went to see the ‘Lion King’ on Broadway which was good – but I have to say it wasn’t as good as ‘Wicked’ that we saw in London earlier in the year – Broadway was an exciting place to be though.

On New Years Eve we went round to spend the evening with some of Holly’s friends which was great - a nice casual evening was just perfect.

I had a bit of an accident on New Years Day in my Audi RS6 – in the driveway – it was snowing and there’s quite a sharp left hand turn and I put the brakes on to go round the corner (I was doing 10mph by the way) and the car just started to slide and kept on sliding until it went clean through the hedge and ended up in my neighbour’s vegetable patch. So I duly went to apologise and thankfully he was most understanding and fine about it. The car ended up with a dented front bumper which wasn’t too serious but I don’t think they’ll be having many Potatoes in their stew next door for a while!

In the New Year I was going to start practising again but the weather was so bad that I couldn’t do anything at all – it’s great for a few days and we all love it but it hung around a seriously long time. The best bit about the snow was that Theo had never seen snow before so we took him out in the garden where he proceeded to roll in all the snow and then he was trying to catch snowflakes in his mouth which was just hilarious!  On the subject of dogs – we are now the proud owners of a Cocker Spaniel puppy called Gus – nine weeks old - who is adorable and is now undergoing house training by Holly! Gus and Theo (see image) get on great together and it’s brilliant that Theo now has a doggy mate in the house to mess around with.

I flew out to Dubai on 8th January to escape the weather and practised for a week at The Els Club which was great as JP (my caddie) and Michael (my coach) were also there so we got a lot of good stuff done which was really helpful.

It’s great to be out here and ready to go again and it makes me realise how lucky we are as professionals to come out here in this great weather and just playing golf for a living. It doesn't get better than this.

The course in Abu Dhabi is set up really well, the greens are a lot firmer than they were the last couple of times I’ve played and the rough is pretty similar (thick in spots) and quite thick around the greens which will make a difference with these new grooves. I don’t think the scoring will be as low this year as in previous years – maybe fourteen to eighteen under instead of in the twenties.

On the subject of the new grooves, shots from the fairway are exactly the same; out of the semi-rough and the normal rough they do make a difference – instead of pitching it by the hole and stopping it you have to hit it say five yards short and just let it release to the hole. At the end of the day it’s not that big a difference and I don’t think the difference is as big as everyone’s making out. All the players on Tour are so good that the difference is minimal.

I keep getting asked a lot what my goals are for this year – well here goes! I’d like to make it into the top 5 in the World Rankings. I want to win more – I only won once last year but I put myself in position to win three or four times so if I’d like to put myself into those positions again and capitalise on it and take more opportunities.

I’d like to put myself in contention in the Majors – I was last year in the USPGA and finished 3rd – and the experience I gained last year will definitely help me.  I’d just like to get a good run and go into them playing well - and if can get into contention you never know what might happen. Obviously America’s going to be big – I played eleven events there last year so it’s not a massive difference to play a few more – and I’d like to get my first win on the PGA Tour but wins anywhere in the world would be great.  I suppose I’m cutting down my European schedule a little bit so I’ll have to play really really well in the events that I do play in to be in with chance of winning the Race To Dubai, and obviously the Fedex Cup over in the States is a big one too so it’s a really exciting year ahead and I can’t wait to get started.

Right that’s all for now and I’ll report in before my defence of the Dubai Desert Classic.

Rory.