It remains fitting that golf sprung out of a birthplace rich in mists, clouds and occasional fogs.
Just try to follow the following passage from Martin Kaymer.
Now, Kaymer might be newly 27, but the indications indicate he might end up about as good at the game as anyone not named Jack or Eldrick or Gary or Walter or Ben.
Two weeks ago, he came to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship as "the king of Abu Dhabi" – rival Alvaro Quiros's words – so yesterday there came the reasonable question about whether expectations affected him, given his 73, 77 and missed cut at Abu Dhabi.
"Well, I mean it didn't really affect me in the past, you know," he said.
That's defensible, given he won the tournament in 2011 after winning it in 2010, which came after winning it in 2008, which came at age roughly 12 as he extolled his really cool luxury hotel.
"So everybody expected me to play well again," he said, "but maybe this year my expectations were too high because I was practising very hard in the winter, and felt like I was playing good golf."
So the other people's expectations weren't consequential, but Kaymer's own expectations butted in, and here's where we start to get into the fog of it all.
High expectations - confidence! - can antagonise good golf, which asks the human brain to contain its expectations to the next shot. This is, of course, unnatural for the human brain.
Continuing: "But then if you don't start the way you want ... I started straightaway with a double bogey because I hit it out of bounds, and then you feel like you're a little bit behind, and then you try even harder."
Now, look at that. Kaymer has won a major title (the 2010 US PGA Championship), won the Race to Dubai, won 10 times at this meagre age, spent a spell as the world No 1. He has played 18 holes so many times that his brain probably divides neatly into 18 compartments, recognising the importance of each hole over the whole.
He, of all 27-year-old people, long since comprehends that a starting double bogey shouldn't make anyone feel behind, and that the response absolutely should not be trying even harder.
Yet he's a human; golf, a beast. Its fundamental oddnesses threaten even somebody that good.
Continuing: "And with putting you have to wait. It's not good if you try to steer the ball into the hole.
"You know, you have to let it happen. You have to wait for it, but after a while I got a little bit impatient and that's never good when you need to make birdies.
"So I think it was more about myself that I was not patient enough and that I maybe expected a little too much."
The savagery of it. Here is a man who in 2010 played 78 rounds and averaged 70.04, first on the tour. Most guys, if they went out and shot 70 once in a life, would spend the rest of life boring to death friends, close relatives, distant relatives and strangers in airline terminals just rehashing it.
Yet here is a man who knows the value of the lag putt, knows full well the game is not about steering putts, knows in his bones it's about percentages and efficiency and patience and so on.
Yet he possesses a human mind which, being a human mind, did not see why you could not just steer that ball into that hole. The game saw that, jumped up and bit, which it adores doing amid high expectations.
In 2010, Kaymer surged to the Tour title and posted major finishes of cut-8-7-1. In 2011, then, in a way it's almost predictable that his major finishes went cut-39-12-cut. Or, not. It's mysterious.
Said even the ancient elder Lee Westwood, 38, whose hunt for a first major title after so much nibbling ought to be one of the top themes of the year: "It's always a strange situation because, you know, you kind of need confidence to play well.
"But obviously good play breeds that confidence. So it's strange, what comes first. So you sort of have to build up from square one again, and get used to seeing good shots coming off the club face and going where you want."
Or you can go with a still-older sage, who turned up in Qatar last week with two major titles and a legacy of demonstrative frustration and the name "John Daly." He said, "I'm 45 and I'm still learning. But it's just the hardest game in the world."
cculpepper@thenational.ae
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
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Match info:
Burnley 0
Manchester United 2
Lukaku (22', 44')
Red card: Marcus Rashford (Man United)
Man of the match: Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United)
Full Party in the Park line-up
2pm – Andreah
3pm – Supernovas
4.30pm – The Boxtones
5.30pm – Lighthouse Family
7pm – Step On DJs
8pm – Richard Ashcroft
9.30pm – Chris Wright
10pm – Fatboy Slim
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The biog
Name: Gul Raziq
From: Charsadda, Pakistan
Family: Wife and six children
Favourite holes at Al Ghazal: 15 and 8
Golf Handicap: 6
Childhood sport: cricket
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
T10 Cricket League
Sharjah Cricket Stadium
December 14- 17
6pm, Opening ceremony, followed by:
Bengal Tigers v Kerala Kings
Maratha Arabians v Pakhtoons
Tickets available online at q-tickets.com/t10
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The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
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The biog
Marital status: Separated with two young daughters
Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo
Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian
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Goal: For Nefsy to become his legacy long after he is gon
Start times
5.55am: Wheelchair Marathon Elites
6am: Marathon Elites
7am: Marathon Masses
9am: 10Km Road Race
11am: 4Km Fun Run
UAE WARRIORS RESULTS
Featherweight
Azouz Anwar (EGY) beat Marcelo Pontes (BRA)
TKO round 2
Catchweight 90kg
Moustafa Rashid Nada (KSA) beat Imad Al Howayeck (LEB)
Split points decision
Welterweight
Gimbat Ismailov (RUS) beat Mohammed Al Khatib (JOR)
TKO round 1
Flyweight (women)
Lucie Bertaud (FRA) beat Kelig Pinson (BEL)
Unanimous points decision
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) beat Regelo Enumerables Jr (PHI)
TKO round 1
Catchweight 100kg
Marc Vleiger (NED) beat Mohamed Ali (EGY)
Rear neck choke round 1
Featherweight
James Bishop (NZ) beat Mark Valerio (PHI)
TKO round 2
Welterweight
Abdelghani Saber (EGY) beat Gerson Carvalho (BRA)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Bakhtiyar Abbasov (AZE) beat Igor Litoshik (BLR)
Unanimous points decision
Bantamweight
Fabio Mello (BRA) beat Mark Alcoba (PHI)
Unanimous points decision
Welterweight
Ahmed Labban (LEB) v Magomedsultan Magomedsultanov (RUS)
TKO round 1
Bantamweight
Trent Girdham (AUS) beat Jayson Margallo (PHI)
TKO round 3
Lightweight
Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) beat Roman Golovinov (UKR)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Steve Kennedy (AUS)
Submission round 2
Lightweight
Dan Moret (USA) v Anton Kuivanen (FIN)
TKO round 2
Abandon
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay
Translated by Arunava Sinha
Tilted Axis Press
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
