ABU DHABI // Despite starting the new season much as he finished the last - celebrating and holding a glimmering silver award - Lee Westwood said this week's Abu Dhabi Championship signals an opportunity to shift the focus from former glories to future success.
The world No 4's last competitive round came in November at the Earth Course where he won the Dubai World Championship and claimed the inaugural Race to Dubai. Yesterday, meanwhile, on the eve of the start of his title defence, he was named the European Tour Players' Player of the Year.
But the 36-year-old said that while recognition was always welcome, he was ready to move on starting today at the National Course.
"Winning the Dubai World Championship and the Race to Dubai was an unbelievable moment for me and one that will live with me forever," said Westwood. "But you have to, at some point, stick [last year] in a box and move on, although still feed off the confidence; especially from the end of the year and the last tournament."
The Englishman, who finished joint third at the British Open and the PGA Championship last year, said retaining the European Order of Merit was his minimum goal for 2010, adding his main objective was to end the season with an elusive major.
"Winning the Money List, there's not many places to go from there, other than I suppose winning it by more," he said. "But the majors are where I can improve because I haven't won one - and that's everybody's goal. It's the yardstick by which all top professionals are measured.
"I feel like I should have won The Open Championship last year, but didn't, and I have learned a few things from that. The more often I get into situations like that, the more comfortable I feel and I'm now at the stage where I should be in those positions at most majors."
Westwood gets his season under way today alongside last year's winner Paul Casey and Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
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Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
MATCH INFO
What: India v Afghanistan, first Test
When: Starts Thursday
Where: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengalaru
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
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