Another week at home flew by and then it was back to work!
But what a great week at home with the family! It was wonderful to get everyone together for a Halloween party on Saturday at our house, before an early start Sunday to Manchester airport!
Jess (the spooky witch) and Olivia (skeleton) loved the party and Jess did pretty well with her first go at ‘trick or treat’ with her Uncle Chris! 
So it was time for the final two events of the 2015 season – Oman for the grand final of the Challenge Tour and then European Tour School in Spain the following week!
After the great week in China, I had two fantastic opportunities to win a full European Tour card!
And it was ‘nothing to lose’ golf, as my category on both the European Tour and the Challenge Tour is far better than any I have had before!
Of course to get full status on the ET I needed a top 2/3 in Oman to have a chance, or of course play very well at Tour School…. 
I showed some signs of great golf in China, and the week in Oman was going to be really fun as Steve Tooby was back on the bag – many of you know Steve!
He’s been working on the main Tour for Paul Maddy all year, but the chance arose to get him back with me for two weeks and I jumped at it!
That could make all the difference! 
So, Oman was a Wednesday start with weekends out in Oman being Fri/Sat, so it was an early Sunday morning flight to Muscat via Doha and an early night for a full day’s practice on Monday in the Oman heat!
Last year the CT had the penultimate event here at The Wave Golf Club and I finished 12th in what turned out to be a very windy and tough week!
I hoped that the conditions would be the same!
I like the track, it’s very demanding off the tee, and with the wind it feels exactly like being back at Crosland Heath as a boy, just 30° hotter! 
MONDAY/TUESDAY
Wow, it was hot! But thankfully it was windy and I liked that for two reasons – you don’t feel the 30° heat quite as much and the wind makes it a lot trickier!
I just played 9 holes on the Monday morning and went through my practice check list on the practice area.
Tuesday it was pro-am day for everyone!
So it was a good chance to play the course in ‘Amber’ mode, as my coach would say, try out a few shots, hit different tee shots and start putting together a game plan for round 1!
THE GOLF ROUND UP!
So here we go, round 1 of the Race to Oman Grand Final starts…
Out in reverse OOM order, I played with Pontus Widegren and Alex Bjork at 7.41am.
With my hotel being a mile from the official hotel (cost saving) it was a 5am jog down to the road to get the 5.30am bus to the course!
Shower, stretch and breakfast at the club, then game on!!!!
A good warm up (not that you need much warming up in 30° at 7am) but I felt good!
A great opening tee shot and I was away…. steady golf most of the day and a few good putts along the way, I signed for an opening 70 (-2).
That put me in a nice position to hopefully make some sort of charge into day 2!
Day 2 charge… it did not quite happen but it sure could have! (Typical golf comment there!). But after holing putts on the front nine from 40ft, 35ft and 60ft to go out in -1, I felt a back nine push was possible!
I hit a nine iron into 4 feet on the tenth but missed that and let the momentum fall away with bogeys on the next two holes!
Still some good chances coming in but I had to settle for shooting 73 (+1) and fall back down the board to T26th! 
(First ever drugs test)
Two more rounds left to commit better to shots, have fun, and try to finish the season in style!!!
Round 3… The wind switched 90° and someone turned the power up! It was really strong; all of a sudden good birdie chances became strong par holes!
And by looking at the scores you could really tell! I shot +4; I didn’t play great, but didn’t hole anything.
On grainy greens, wind makes it so much harder, and at times can make you and your putts look so bad!!
Another early start for round 4, and it was a chance to try and climb the board and get set for next week in Spain!
Round 4 started with the worst ball striking of the week for 9 holes! And somehow I managed to play them in 1 under… so all was not lost!!
I think I hit 2 decent wedge shots and the rest was pretty rubbish!
Back 9, I found a bit of a game and managed to make a couple more birdies and shoot a respectable 70 (-2) to finish in a tie for 30th and retain my OOM position at the start of the week which was 42nd!
So that’s the end of the CT season and my best OOM position to date! Also a hugely improved category on the CT and the European Tour for next year!
And that’s even before trying to improve it at Tour School!!
So, it was back to Manchester and three days with the family before the last slog of the 6 rounds at Tour School in Spain!
Bring it on!!!!!