An exciting week in prospect for this week’s European Tour event at Abu Dhabi GC and with this amount of product on show it’s always a vibrant place to be - with many familiar faces taking time out from their range practice to say hello.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello stopped by to give us his feedback on M:PROJECT™, stating that he could definitely feel the difference in sensation underfoot. You may have also seen Rafa wearing a black FJ glove while out in Abu Dhabi. Being one of the European Tour’s warmer destinations of the year, Rafa has been switching between GTxtreme™ and RainGrip® which he feels allows him to improve his grip in these humid conditions.

Other players to try M:PROJECT™ included Thomas Levet who was clearly delighted with the feel and to quote the Frenchman “oh my god these are so comfortable".  Joining him was George Coetzee who also wearing the soon to be released M:PROJECT.

Jose Maria Olazabal was firing balls down the range in his FJ ICON™ shoes and Brett Rumford was also  practising hard wearing head to toe FJ (FJ ICON's and FJ Apparel), whilst listening to his favourite songs on his ipod. Manny Manassero also dropped by to pick up a new pair of FJ Sport™.

It's always great to see Padraig and as usual he was fashioning his XPS-1 with distinctive red laces. Paddy became a spokesman for the Special Olympics back in May 2010 and the “Wear the Laces” campaign is simple: purchase red Special Olympics shoelaces online at www.wearthelaces.org and lace up your shoes to show your support! After putting his glasses on he suddenly figured out who had been supplying him with a new pair of shoes all these years “it’s you!”

Ricardo Santos can also be seen smiling like a Cheshire cat - proud to be wearing his FJ Apparel. Here’s to a fantastic few days in the sun – it’s currently -7 in the UK and snowing!