Europe's royal win

While Charl Schwartzel was claiming his fourth European Tour title at the African Open and Geoff Ogilvy made his usual flying start on the PGA Tour with a comeback victory in Hawaii, Europe warmed up for this year's Ryder Cup with a hard-fought Royal Cup win over Asia in Bangkok.

The Royal Trophy is the brainchild of the great Severano Ballesteros whose vision to create a team match play event between Europe and Asia finally came to fruition with the inception of the first event back in 2002.

Seve himself usually captains the European Team, but with him still battling his way back to health, this event provided a great opportunity for this year's Ryder Cup captain to get to know some of his potential team members and gain some extra experience ahead of the Celtic Manor showpiece in October.

Earlier in the week, Colin Montgomerie urged his Europe team to set the tone for the Ryder Cup later in the year by winning back the Royal Trophy. The Scot is all too aware that the past couple of years have proved highly disappointing for European match play golf as they surrendered both the Ryder Cup and Royal Trophy in their last two team contests against America and Asia respectively.

As well as being playing captain in Thailand, Montgomerie will also skipper the European bid to win back the Ryder Cup in October and was determined to send out an early message ahead of that match in Wales by beating Asia.

Monty's men regained the trophy they lost last year with an 8.5-7.5 triumph at the Amata Spring Country Club. After falling behind on the opening day of the tournament, Europe battled back in Saturday's four-balls to lead 4.5-3.5 heading into the final day.

A determined Asia battled hard and threatened to force a first-ever play-off at the tournament as they trailed by just one point with one match remaining. But, after Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee bogeyed the last, Swede Henrik Stenson kept his cool to make par from six feet to halve the match and secure an 8.5-7.5 win for Europe.

The European Tour moves on to Royal Johannesburg Golf Club for the Joburg Open, the final co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour before the race moves on to our neck of the woods and the much anticipated desert swing.

America's Anthony Kim is hoping the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Golf Championship - played over the National Course at the prestigious Abu Dhabi Golf Club - will be his first European Tour win. A regular on the US PGA Tour since turning professional in 2006, the Los Angeles-born 24-year-old joined The European Tour in 2009 and with dual membership plans to play selected events on both Tours.

Last year his schedule only allowed him to play twice on this side of the Atlantic, the Open Championship at Turnberry and the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain, where he finished runner-up to Ross Fisher.

The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship - from January 21 to 24 - will be Kim's first European Tour event of the year and marks his Middle East debut.

Kim becomes the latest high profile player to confirm his visit to the region for some early season sunshine and the hope of success.

However, with four of the world's top 10 players already entered, including European number one, Lee Westwood, dynamic Swede, Henrik Stenson, two-time Abu Dhabi winner Paul Casey and Northern Ireland's young-gun, Rory McIlroy, Kim will have it all to play for.