Dubai is always a fantastic way to bring the curtain down on the season and it was great to finish on a real high.

There hasn’t been too much to celebrate over in 2012 but, bizarrely, and this is one of the strange things about the game, I have rarely looked forward to a new season more.

I have now had more time to pratcise the changes I have been working on with my new coach and am beginning to trust everything a lot more and slowly but surely getting rid of all the recent demons.

Trust is a huge thing in golf and I wasn’t feeling too good about myself when I fatted my wedge approach into the water at the 18th on the second day. At the time I was going along very nicely and looking good to contend.

I was so down when I finished but my caddy gave me some really good advice and reminded me that it was just one bad shot and to get back out there and have a big weekend which thankfully I did.

That was a real test and it was great to come through it. In a way it made it easier that Shanshan Feng was so far ahead that there was no chance of winning so you could give it a real go to try and get inside the top 10.

After rounds of 68 and 65 I managed to get into third spot for my best finish of the season and the last two rounds I didn’t have a dropped shot. The last day was the best I have probably ever felt on a course, I felt so in control of myself and where I was trying to hit it and even my putting was really flowing so that was fantastic.

It is incredible to win the money list in your first year and Carlota is particularly popular on tour. In Dubai we always have our end-of-year awards and it was no great surprise that Carolta Giganda cleaned up; she won the Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and the Players’ Player of the Year and she certainly got my vote.

It is incredible to win the money list in your first year and Carlota is particularly popular on tour. She is such a nice person and everyone loves her and she is almost like our version of Lorena Ochoa, someone who is so nice and so good.

I played with her when she was an amateur and you could tell then that she was going to be good and she hits it absolutely miles. She hits her 3 wood as far as most hit their driver so she doesn’t have to hit her driver too often. Plus she holes loads of putts so that is a pretty lethal combination.

As for Shanshan, I have now played in two LET events with her and she has won them both. So from what I have seen she is just a machine.

Also in Dubai we learned that Ivan Khodabakhsh will become the new chief executive officer for the LET taking over from Alex Armas.

From what I could see the decision went down very well among the players and we all met him at the players’ meeting and he spoke very well. We’ll have to wait and see but he has obviously got a lot of experience having been the CEO of World Series Boxing and prior to that was at the European Athletic Association.

Hopefully he will be able to take us to the next level. He said he was going to do a full assessment and speak at the next meeting so it will be great to hear his plans then. In the meantime I hope all the Lady Golfer readers have a great festive period and here’s to a fantastic 2013.

Golf in India
The Indian Open is a great stop and you get a real sense of how big they would love golf to be. They’re doing as much as possible to get their players exposed to high-level competition and now have the likes of Sharmila Nicollet (pictured) coming through. I led after the first day but was still pleased with a top 25 as it is a great layout but has a lot of shots I’m not too comfortable with.

Subscribe to NCG