Fund of fun for Player's players on the beach

Ian Poulter was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Gary Player's Saadiyat Beach Classic charity tournament yesterday - and that was before last night's auction at the Emirates Palace hotel in aid of underprivileged children.

Poulter, who last year came within a stroke of forcing a play-off against Martin Kaymer in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, was one of the big-name casualties this year in a high-class field of four major champions and most of the world's top 10.

Having missed the halfway cut in a tournament won easily by the brilliant Kaymer, Poulter had no option but to spend most of the weekend on the practice ground before resuming his schedule in Bahrain this week.

"There is a very thin dividing line between finishing second and missing the cut," said Poulter. "You only have to miss a few fairways on the first two days and then miss a few putts and you are the wrong side of that line."

He was glad of the competitive respite that yesterday's fund-raising tournament provided, even though the Englishman found himself hitting shots from some unusual positions.

The format of the event hosted by Player, the South African legend who won all four major championships during his golden era alongside Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, meant that team spirit would prevail above individual brilliance.

The professional players who led the fourball groups were allowed to follow up their tee shots only six times during the 18 holes. The other 12 second shots had to be played from where the drives of their companions landed.

It made for a light-hearted affair where it was difficult to judge the merits of the big names. Colin Montgomerie, who stepped down as European Ryder Cup captain last week, was as relaxed as he can ever have been as he enjoyed the rarity of a buggy ride along the course.

"It's super to concentrate on one's own golf as opposed to the 20 or 30 names on the leaderboard at various tour events, who's doing what, watching names on the board and wondering: 'Where are they?" as I was doing during the Ryder Cup build-up.

"'How's he doing?' I was thinking, as opposed to focusing on myself and finding I am three-over par after seven and out of the tournament. So, it's nice to concentrate on one's self and concentrate on getting my world ranking back and hopefully put myself back in a position where I can compete in tournaments."

Montgomerie welcomed the appointment of Jose Maria Olazabal as his Ryder Cup successor. "It was only right that Jose Maria receive the captaincy last week and quite right, too.

"He'll be a great captain, a very passionate man. He has learned a lot from Seve [Ballesteros], the maestro and leader of the European Tour, so it's nice that Olly can do this.

"I think America's right for him as well. It's where he has won both of his major championships, the Masters, and I think he's well respected throughout the game as a player and a professional and I think it's perfect that he takes over at this stage."

Montgomerie was unable to weave his magic with his amateur colleagues and finished in the chasing pack four shots behind the winner Thomas Bjorn, who took first prize on a card play-off over the team led by Henrik Stenson after both returned totals of 120 strokes (the aggregate of the two best scores out of four for each hole).

The host Player, who was hoping last night to surpass last year's fund-raising total of Dh1.2m, led the third placed team.