Honda Classic, 8 March

I went into last week's Honda Classic with a lot of optimism, with it being virtually a home tournament for me and having won here a couple of years ago. Obviously, a tied-67th place finish tells you pretty much all you need to know about my performance. I had spells of good play, but in the windy conditions my game was too inconsistent. To be honest, there's not much more to say, other than you move on and look forward to your next tournament.

However, there was some good news last week as I was proud and honoured to hear that the Golf Writers Association of America is giving me the prestigious Charlie Bartlett Award. It's named after the first secretary of the GWAA and is given to professional golfers for their unselfish contributions to the betterment of society, in my case for setting up the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation in South Africa and, more recently, the Els for Autism Foundation in the US.

I often say that the mark of a true man is not what he takes in life, but what he gives back. It is a philosophy that I strongly believe in and live by, so an award such as this from the Golf Writers Association of America really means a lot to me and I know to everyone else who works on behalf of our charitable foundations. I'm very much looking forward to receiving the award at the GWAA's annual dinner, taking place on the eve of this year's Masters.

Anyway, moving onto this week's CA Championship at Doral, the second of this year's WGC events. This is another of my favourite stops on the PGA Tour and I love the straightforward playability of this golf course. It's a well-balanced test. There are holes where you need to fade it, others that require a draw. You've got monster par-4s - including the 18th, which is one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour - and you've got short par-4s, a nice mixture of par-3s and par-5s. You need to be able to work the ball to score well. Over the years I've preferred it when the wind gets up a bit and the golf course plays firm and fast, but we'll see how that pans out.

It's another golf course I've won on before, back in 2002 when they played the Genuity Championship here, so as with last week's Honda I'll go in with some good vibes. Only this week I'm obviously looking for a much better result. My game's been in decent shape this year, so there's no reason why I can't shrug off last week's play and really step it up here at Doral. That's my intention.

Okay then, I'll write again next week and tell you all about it.

Bye for now.