Henrik Stenson is giving serious thought to becoming a member of the US Tour again next year - even with his wife due to give birth to their second child in February.
Sweden's world No 6, the highest-ranked player in the Mercedes-Benz Championship starting in Cologne today, gave up his membership at the end of 2007.
But Stenson, who lives in Dubai, said it was "most likely" he would be signing up once more.
He and Lee Westwood ? his playing partner this afternoon ? are the only members of the world's top 10 not taking part in the FedEx Cup play-offs, the third leg of which is in Chicago this week.
"I didn't join the last two seasons, because for me it was about finding the right balance on how many events I wanted to play," he said.
"With so many long trips and time differences, I felt 25 was a good number - it made it easy to play.
"I still want to keep it around that, so I'll have to look at how many I play on each side of the Atlantic."
Stenson returns to action today from a three-week break.
He will also be playing for Continental Europe against Britain and Ireland at the Vivendi Trophy in Paris in two weeks but then plans to take most of October off.
That is because he wants to be fresh for a busy end of the year - the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, the Dubai World Championship and then his defence of both the World Cup in China and Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
Westwood, currently ranked 10th in the world, has told Britain and Ireland captain Paul McGinley he is unavailable for the Vivendi Trophy.
McGinley is also preparing himself to be without Irishman Padraig Harrington, plus Englishmen Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and maybe Paul Casey as well because of their possible involvement in the Tour Championship. "It means a lot to qualify and play, but you can't play every week," said Westwood.
"I'm 36 now. At 26, I could play a lot more.
"I had the intention of playing, but it's just a sensible week for me to take off now. The winnings don't count towards the money list.
"There's the possibility of playing 36 holes a day and now I've got a completely free week to work on my game."
* PA Sport
The specs
Engine: Single front-axle electric motor
Power: 218hp
Torque: 330Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 402km (claimed)
Price: From Dh215,000 (estimate)
On sale: September
Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)
Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)
West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)
Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)
Sunday
Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)
Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)
Everton v Liverpool (10pm)
Monday
Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
'Cheb Khaled'
Artist: Khaled
Label: Believe
Rating: 4/5
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
Kill Bill Volume 1
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine and Michael Madsen
Rating: 4.5/5
Kill
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Raghav Juyal
Rating: 4.5/5
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
Company profile
Company name: Shipsy
Year of inception: 2015
Founders: Soham Chokshi, Dhruv Agrawal, Harsh Kumar and Himanshu Gupta
Based: India, UAE and Indonesia
Sector: logistics
Size: more than 350 employees
Funding received so far: $31 million in series A and B rounds
Investors: Info Edge, Sequoia Capital’s Surge, A91 Partners and Z3 Partners
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
The Baghdad Clock
Shahad Al Rawi, Oneworld
The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
