No wonder the players like the Desert Swing. Five star hotels, manicured fairways and some warm early season sunshine in which to hone their games. The fields have been strong and the FootJoy Tour Team has had its hands full keeping up with player requests.

World Cup winner Henrik Stenson is a Classics devotee. At Qatar it was time to collect three pairs to kick-off the 2009 season. Ross McGowan also paid the team a visit. Now in his second full year on Tour, Ross takes meticulous care over his equipment and always checks his gloves for fit before putting them into play. The young Englishman from Cheam is another who is already playing in SYNR-G.

Spaniard, Alejandro Canizares, has been busy designing custom Contours on the MyJoys website. At Abu Dhabi he collected two pairs. The first, black with a white saddle and the second pair a white shoe with a blue lizard print saddle - both very striking! Keep you eyes peeled for these.

Alejandro was amongst a group of Spanish players and FootJoy wearers including Alvaro Velasco and Pablo Larrazabal, who were admiring Jose maria Olazabal’s ball striking on the range in Dubai – and we hope taking note of Jose Maria’s sartorial elegance completed perfectly with a pair of Custom Classics.

Those of you catching-up with the coverage of the Desert Swing events on television may have spotted players sporting the FJ logo on their collars. Peter O'Malley, Ariel Canete, Kenneth Ferrie (back from a season on the PGA Tour), Steve Webster, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Ross McGowan all featured in the coverage.

After Dubai, it’s out to Malaysia and Australia before the first WGC events of the year come into view for the big guns. We’ll keep you posted.