Rory McIlroy, the world No.1, confirmed he will contest next fortnight's Omega Dubai Desert Classic that ends two days before he takes the witness stand in the High Court in Dublin.
Organisers of the Dubai event indicated McIlroy will tee up where in 1999 he claimed the first of his 16 professional titles. But unless there is a settlement of the dispute against a former manager, and that seems highly unlikely, McIlroy is staring at least six days inside a Dublin courtroom.
McIlroy has spent the past week in Dubai working on his game ahead of taking the one hour's drive south to Abu Dhabi and this week's 10th anniversary Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. "The swing feels good and can't wait to get the season started in Abu Dhabi," he said at the brink of his eighth full season on the European Tour.
Scotland's Scott Jamieson will be kick-starting his fifth full Tour season and using a similar Nike driver to McIlroy and Tiger Woods in Abu Dhabi.
Jamieson, who turned 31 at the end of last year, is to play five events in succession including next week's Qatar Master, the Dubai Desert Classic, Malaysian Open and the new Thailand Classic.
"It's nice to back out on Tour again after having some time off," he said. "I've not played since playing the Alfred Dunhill in South Africa about a month ago so I've got the competitive juices flowing again, and certainly ready to get going again.
"I'm not normally at a tournament on a Monday but the good thing is I've got these three days to get ready before the start of play on Thursday so we'll find out how rusty, if anything, I might be."
Uppermost on Jamieson's 2015 agenda is a second Tour victory - he claimed the 2013 Nelson Mandela Challenge - and an improvement in his current world ranking of 239.
"I always make a new year's golfing resolution at the start of each new year and those are written down in my black book but then I am sure they are similar goals to everyone else," he said.
"Of course, an improvement in my world ranking and also try and open as many doors as possible this year. I was pretty well positioned in the world rankings at the start of last year and last year I've just let it slip. That was something I looked at in depth at the end of the year."
In fact, Jamieson has not been as low as 239 since mid-2011 and was inside the top 75 at the start of 2014. Less immediately, Jamieson is also looking forward to heading back to some very familiar courses this year including Gullane No.1, the host venue for this year's Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
"I'm looking forward to Dubai in a few weeks because I always feel I can do well around the following week in Malaysia as I have always like that particular week," he said.
"Then, looking ahead in the mid part of the year, I love Paris National and the French Open and then the following week there's Gullane No.1 and that's going to be really good.
"Hopefully by then I will have qualified automatically for The Open the following week on the opposite bank of the Forth at St Andrews."
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