I was called to the tee having just watched Fred Couples and Ray Floyd tee off in front of me and looking at Steve Elkington and Greg Norman walk to the first tee as I prepared to tee off the tenth tee. I was playing in a Pro Member event with a very impressive line up. Playing 18 holes is a rare treat especially in such company and the list of tour players was endless and impressive. Palmer, Rose, Els etc. I played ok but chipped and putted well to save at least 5 possible drops for our team and ended with 4 over on my own ball. My partner did his job well and we ended in the top half of the field. Ernie shot 65 but the conditions were tough and he was just coming off his win on the USTour. Well done to a great player. It would be great to see him get on top of his game and challenge Tiger for the 2008 Majors.

Then it was back to Europe and some Days in CZ with the juniors. The winter has been mild and the driving range was full of kids for three days. I had to zip back to London for Golf Night and then raced back to Prague for the Golf Exhibition where I did golf lessons on behalf of Golf Digest to the public. Golf is growing fast and the enthusiasm from the golfers is thrilling to see.

I went back down to Arcos for a golf group from Denmark. They are from a fantastic new faldo course called Ledreborg and we will be Sister Clubs. As with all Scandinavians they were good on the course but especially good at the bar and a great time was had by all.

I finnished off the month by getting through Terminal 5 in record time and I think they made some improvements although it was such a shame that the opening went so poorly.

I stayed home in January watching my little baby get started in life. The effort from my wife was so impressive and she just seems to have an endless energy.

I have 6 Golf Nights to do this month as I look forward to them as we watch the the European Tour events unfold in Asia.

Arcos gardens is looking really good and I went down quickly to check out how the practice facilities are coming on and to plan our next steps. It rained hard which was bad for my trip but good for the area since we have been behind in rain and our golf course is thirsty.

My major event this month was the winter camp for all the juniors at Kunetichka in CZ and we had a group of 25 down for a week training and playing. The guys hit tons of balls and I tried to get them to really use all our short game facilities to build up better technique in the area of 50 yards and in to the hole. We had a tournament with a Finnish group and some Icelantic players and then a huge dinner and prizes afterwards. Practicing and competing is a great bundle and I think some of the players are really improving.

The owner of Arcos Gardens and I went all over the south of Spain looking at new developments and some new sites as we continue to plan our future in the area and some of the sites and possibilities are just spectacular.

It was a fun month and great to be back teaching in Arcos although I am really looking forward to next year when my new house is finnished and my family can come with me!

Winter is still present in London and although I had lessons at Mill Ride it was pretty grim and course conditions are tough. Word of the month....Head South!

January is over and I have no idea where a month of time has gone! My little baby is doing well and although his sleep patterns have been suspect, we have all decided not to hold it against him!

I stayed close to home this month, doing some lessons at Mill Ride and then Golf Night on Sky which as always is great fun. We have been really focusing on the three events in the Gulf (The Gulf Swing). Those events certainly produced some fantastic winners.

Martin Kymer is as good as I have seen since Sergio Garcia first came out.

Adam Scott has more talent in his little finger than most players, with putting like that he can really start to challenge the top.

Tiger Woods!!! What an incredible final 9 holes, he is just so strong and Ernie must have drowned his sorrows with a few beers on Sunday night. It does show that Ernie has the game now he just needs to get a few wins to really create a good rivalry in the Majors this year.

I have been in touch through Pro Session software with Suzann on a regular basis and she is so keen to have a great season which should start soon in Hawaii.

Joakim Haeggman and I will be spending some days in Arcos.

I have just been to Prague and The Kunetica Golf Resort where I shall be training the youth teams. They are a delighful group and we have a training camp coming up in Arcos Gardens which I am really looking forward to. The facilities are getting so good and I cannot wait to launch my academy later in the year.

well that's been my first month of the year. Staying close to home for a while then looking forward to lots of trips to CZ, Arcos Gardens and as always all of Scandinavia.

Hope everyone is doing well and keep in touch!

Simon

We went in to London early on Boxing Day to the hospital to get induced! I was nervous because as a spectator you just hope everything turns out ok. We chatted with the other people in the waiting room. The women waiting to get started and get it over with, the guys all smiling with heart rates in the 150's.

We got called up and went off to our room. The nurses monitored wife and baby and then the process started. This is a waiting game so we went for a walk along Tottenham Court Road and had a coffee at Starbucks. We put a serious dent in series 6 of 24(when Jack has a bad day he doesn't do it by halves) until the nurse came back and decided to accelerate the process.

I was in charge of the luggage and we had plenty! My wife never likes to leave anything to chance and we didn't:) Our new room was much more business like and we had all the toys, together with our luggage and all these machines we could have done some serious damage.

After a few delicate moments and some great cheerleading by me we had a baby boy at 1900! There is a lot you can say about being present at the birth of your own child and I am sure all the Mum's and Dad's know what I mean, you just have to take what you get and hope that nature sucessfully performed a little miracle.

Mum and Baby are doing well and after a few trips to London by me and some serious change disapearing into all the parking meters in Camden, we are now all at home getting organised and ready for more adventures in 2008. The first man I met after becoming a Dad again was a parking ticket officer who happily told me what a great story it was going to be that I could tell my new baby that the first thing he did was to cost me £40 for being 7 mins into penalty with my car. He was a sweet chap and after having wished him a Happy New Year:) I refocused on being a Dad again.

I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year.....Have a ball!!!

Simon

I have finished all my shopping and have been up and down the King's Road, London 50 times in the last week. One thing I have noticed is that it must be a rotten time to be a light brown Kangaroo! Lots of little female elves with Uggs rushing about 'Oh my God'.

I am hoping that Santa is going to give me a healthy baby and a healthy mummy, we have been waiting (me patiently others less so) for a week so hopefully gravity will soon apply and all will be well.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Simon

December 11 and now I am just waiting to be a Dad again. The baby is expected on Friday (in three days) so I just trying to quietly panic in a relaxed sort of a way! Tough on Dad's to just kind of hang around waiting and ducking all the things that your wife throws at you !!!

I have been doing lessons at Mill Ride in the rain and the wind! Seen some good guys. Brandon and Steffan are getting good! Ed and Hayley are doing physical and technical training like young champs and James has just got started. A lovely group and with good futures.

What I have been up to? I had lunch at Wentworth with an interesting group who are trying to do some pretty serious events, the new food and bev is really good! Then I was overnight in London and ate in Nobu! It was so busy and so good (Zuma is better). Then golf lessons in the wind and rain and Golf Night with the Sky Sports team. Well done Richard Finch and his caddie Damien who was with Robert Karlsson for years and is a great guy.

Then a round of golf at Mill Ride with Jamie Dalrimple, Ed Joyce and Nick Compton from Middlesex and always be careful of competing against cricketers. They are good golfers! Nick Compton can really hit a few sixes! Mostly just tons of meeting setting up the activities and events for 2008.

I went to my first Christmas party at Urban Golf in London with all the guys with Golf International, the golf magazine for the real golfer. I did an article on Tiger Woods and why he will never win again (JOKING!) from there I went zooming across London to see my old friends at British Airways for a trip to Amsterdam and Nokia World. It was a huge exhibition and it was so great to hear all the news and to see how the company is changing to meet the challenges of a fast changing market. We had a good two days and I was also able to see my friends at GMG who are really building a substantial stake in the Dutch market. From there it was an overnight in Madrid and then on to Sevilla and then down to Arcos Gardens.

We have so much to do but our first resisdents are moving in so that was really exciting and I cannot wait to join them in 2009! I went to hit some balls and make plans for the next phase of the golf academy. It will be fantastic!

Back again to London and my last trip of the year is done as now I have some really important things to do! I will keep you posted with my news and look forward to hearing from all of you!

If you are heading out to beautiful places keep us imformed with some photos, or if you are hanging out in the rain and wind (this is my second winter in this weather since 1986) then send in some crazy pics of your course in the bad weather.

Have fun and Seasons greetings!

I just came back from Miami and that will be my last taste of warm weather for 2007. I had some meetings and played some golf. The golf was the best, Seminole Golf Club and one of my all time favorites. I saw Suzann for some short game tips and she is coming to the end of her best season by far. My golf was so inconsistant, I did not do the training I wanted this year and the difference between my best and worst shots is huge. I am really battling with aiming and then ball position. I need some really good winter training!

I am going to be in England for most of the winter and I will have the occassional Sky Sports Golf Night to do, which is great fun. Rob Lee and Di Stuart really look after me and I have known Mark Roe for years, a lovely team to be a part of and I hope it keeps going in 2008. Here is the team in the photo with star guest Wayne Riley who is from Australia and who is totally insane. My major project this winter will be to welcome my second baby into the world which should take place around the middle of December (my wife is always late and so maybe the baby takes after her). I will be busy this Christmas, don't you think?

Who is going away this winter for some golf? Where are you going? Please send me some photos and reports of the golf courses, all Northern European guys and girls need good places to go during winter. I don't mind the cold but the darkness and the damp totally sucks!

My favorite places are Dubai for lots of stuff to do and great golf weather, and I have visited quite a few places in Asia but I need to explore Australia and New Zealand (I better wait until my family is older). Closer to home I am involved at Arcos Gardens near Jerez in Spain and this is a great place for relaxing and playing/practising golf. The flying is tough and London airports especially Heathrow are so over stretched. Going to Florida is also so easy and you can get great deals at the moment.

Well I plan to have more time to be at home and that means work on my web site so please send in your swings for some comments and lets keep in touch!

I am off to the gym!!!

Simon

I was really looking forward to getting off the plane in Philadelphia. To see my old pal Tommy Elliott who transformed Suzann Pettersen's career with a new putter and a putting lesson. also to meet some real golf genius' in New York, more of that later. Then to play Pine Valley in fantastic company, I had not been there since playing with Annika under special circumstances and it has only got better. It just has the greatest golf atmousphere, like St Andrews, you just know you are in a special place. My game sucked!

HSBC was at Wentworth so I had to go and see a few games. I remember walking round with Faldo years ago and it is always good to watch matchplay.

I had a quick trip to Sweden to the European Teaching Summit and to meet some great golf minds. Pia and Lynn from Vision54 who have done so much with Annika and Suzann, Titleist Performance Institute who have revolutionised the way way in which elite golfers improve which all amatuers should follow. I am on their web site learning whenever I can and I recommend it for all golfers. Kjell Enhager who really is a genius in getting people to get out of their own way, and all sorts. I was given an award by the Swedish PGA and we have been working together for a long time. Johan Hamf and Matz Evenson have a great vision of where the PGA is going and so to be awarded in their company was a great honour indeed.

After a few days in Venice (so beautiful) it was down to Spain and on my way back I spent some hours with Joakim Haeggman who is going to Q school. Come on Haeggy and good luck to all the entrants, that is a tough week with much at stake.

Prague is an exceptionally beautiful place and I was looking forward to visiting again. This time for The International Golf Week headed by Alain Barbaky. lots of teaching of juniors and the opening of Graham Marsh's new course at Kuneticka Golf Resort. The project is sensational and I recommend the hospitality and friendship of the club and it's new members. I played 9 holes with Graham in an exhibition and he is still very competitive and kicked my ____ even though he is the oldest person I have ever met!

It was back to Holland again and some good golf days then the Rugby and tears all around for a soundly defeated English team.

Terblanche in Nice is as good as it gets for first class golf and is the headquarters of Alain Alberti who has done so much to help the French pros to their current standings. We first met in 1991 in Montpellier and we had a good few stories to tell each other. I had a fantastic few days and I do love that part of the world. Congratulations to all those at Terblanche for the delivery of excellence.

So fly fishing care of the world's worst golfer! I was giving all the equipment, all the instruction, even surrounded by suicidal trout and..........caught nothing! I can see the attraction and I loved the art of casting and of presenting the bait in the right way but i think you need to learn to work the rod first and then try to catch the fish. I have much to learn about both! The port was good!

The end of the month was a trip to Arcos Gardens which is growing beyond recognition with so much progress in the development and I cannot wait to next year when the Simon Holmes Golf Academy opens its' doors to our first customers. Come on down!!!

My Dad and I went to watch the England France game. Twickenham is a incredible place and you can see we had a great view. France were strong and we had a few pints to drown our sorrows in distinguished company!

Then it was back to Sweden and The Scandinavian Masters now run by my old friends Jesper Parnevik and Fredrick Nilsmark. They got a great field together and I met caddieshack legend Bill Murray who is exactly as he appears in the movie. Scary!

I watched Martin Kaymer who I am sure will be a winner soon but was delighted to see Finn Mikko Ilonen pick up the title in great style. The Scandinavian Masters is back to its' former glory and we all had a good week. Including Jarmo Sandelin, who may be related to Bill Murray, what a party! Happy Birthday Jarmo!!!

Next stop for me was a PGA teaching day in Denmark which was fun and I met some crazy Danes who are always fun to be with so I hope I get invited back.

Again I was In Finland where I caught up with old friends at Linna Golf, home of Mikko Ilonen who was doing a photo shoot, for a wine testing with Finlands greatest and most beautiful wine expert Essi Avellan. Then a golf school with Satu and Anssi who have been friends for many years, so the work felt like pleasure which is always the goal.

More activity and more talking and a seminar on What skills coaches will need in the future for the Finish teaching group run by Anna Lina Vilo, who is so lovely and she introduced me to Tula who does a great massage on my poor old shoulders.

The month finished off with some Golf Night shows on Sky but it is a great time in Scandinavia in the summer and I was happy to see so many old friends.