Winner of the first Dubai World Championship and European No.1 for the second time. It all sounds and feels pretty good to me.

To walk off Greg Norman’s Earth course in the desert with a new record, a second title in five weeks to be crowned Europe’s top golfer was extra special. Indeed, I’d say the whole thing was my greatest achievement to date... and hopefully there is bigger and better to come.

As for the €1.6million prize money, well, I’m told there’s a sale on at Jimmy Choo at the moment so that should keep Laurae in footwear for a few months.

So what of the week in the United Arab Emirates. It's hard to imagine playing better and getting the breaks when I needed them. I didn't think I'd feel so calm out there, but I learned a lot from the pain of my Open Championship experience and tried to put it into practice. It definitely paid off.

And this is a better feeling than my first order of merit win at the turn of the century. Winning in 2000 meant a lot because I won six events and The World Match Play that year, but then to drop completely into obscurity, come back from it and get back into the Top 10 in the world and crown it all by winning this, is just fantastic.

The week had been built up as a head to head between me and my ISM stable mate Rory McIlroy, more than €100,000 ahead when the Race to Dubai finally reached its destination of choice. And once Ross Fisher and Martin Kaymer slipped out of contention, that’s exactly what it became.

I talked all week about having a secret strategy. Well the secret’s out, there wasn’t one at all. The secret was actually making everybody think that I had one. Mind games... all part and parcel of golf.

I did receive some pre-championship advice, however. It concerned confidence levels and it came from my caddie Billy Foster. We were at the beach party on the Tuesday before the event and Billy had just had enough Heineken to tell me what he really thought. I’d only had two Mojitos before moving on to Diet Cokes so I could actually understand what he was telling me.

Billy said I'd been great all year and had won in Portugal, but since then I had not been myself. I had been paying too much attention to other people around me, looking at leader boards too much, worrying what others were doing.

He said, "Look, you've won 30 times in your career and once seven times in a year which was more than the other three guys that were trying to win the Money List put together. Just think about it”.

Billy also pointed out that I’d also been on Tour longer than all three of them put together. If I started playing, like he knew I could play, then they would be the ones looking up at the board worrying about me not the other way around.

And that's what I tried to do all week. It’s a terrible word to use and I hate it, but Billy said I had to ‘bully’ them on the golf course. You've got to be yourself again and get back that instinct I had in the late 90’s and 2000. That’s why I was confident all week.

I think the way you are, the way you portray yourself can be intimidating to other people. I'm not saying it was, but I think it certainly helped. It certainly made me feel good. Even when things were not quite going my way on the second day and I was not making birdies when I thought I should be, I tried to stay patient and keep that same calmness and wait for things to happen.

It was obviously a massive feather in my cap after the first day when Rory said he was glad to get away from it and not have to play with me the second day so that he could concentrate on his own game. There's nothing better for me to hear than a competitor saying they are glad they are not playing with me.

I was asked afterwards what the difference was between the Lee Westwood of then and now and I said that I was much more mature now with a more rounded game containing fewer flaws and weaknesses. That's it, basically. Obviously in 1998, 99 and 2000 I was 26, 27 and 28 and you freewheel. Now although at 36 I’m not old by any means, I've been through a lot professionally. I now know what it's like to play poorly, and what it takes to come back.

Then there was Turnberry and having the silver claret jug and a first major practically ripped from my grasp. It was as disappointing as anything I've ever been through in my career. It just felt like, and still does, a championship I should have won. And The Open Championship is the most important tournament in the world to me. It is the one to win.

So to come so close and not do it was obviously very disappointing. But like I said at the time, you've got to get over that sooner or later and turn finishing third in a major championship into positives, which I tried to do over the next few weeks; and backed that up with 9th in Bridgestone and a third in the PGA plus the win in Portugal.

So rather than let the immediate feeling of disappointment carry on, I tried to draw confidence from it and move on and be ready for next time. In Dubai, I almost felt a similar pressure as at Turnberry because this was a championship that had lasted 14 months. It means a lot to be the European No. 1... to be able to say that again.

People wonder when it all turned round for me and it’s actually been a combination of things, but a lot of credit has got to go to Steve McGregor, the guy that I started working with in the gym about three years ago. Even though the immediate effect might not have been seen on the golf course, he brought some extra professionalism to my life. Steve’s a very analytical person and his ways helped me to think harder about what I was doing and also my fitness and what I eat.

Obviously working with Billy has made a phenomenal difference. It's always reassuring; I think he's the best caddie, certainly in Europe, maybe in the world. And it's nice that I get on with him so well. You know, we are good mates, and you're never quite sure how that's going to turn out when you start working with somebody you get on really well with. It can go one of two ways really. So it's great that everything has clicked into place.

Then there’s my coach Pete Cowen. When I started working with Billy, I was still working with Mark Roe on my short game. I was just getting a bit stuck and not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with Mark so Billy suggested that I go back to Pete, because he had seen the way Pete gives bunker lessons and stuff like that. That's really where it started because my bunker play, chipping and putting weren’t very good. Now it’s all clicked into place.

Then there’s the team off the course. My manager Chubby Chandler I’ve been with for 16 years and he makes it very easy for me just to concentrate on golf. Also my family at home are very supportive through the good times and the bad times, and back through the good times. I've got a lot of people helping me.

Most of them were there to help me celebrate my best ever weekend... and boy did we celebrate. Jumeirah threw us a beach party to remember – not that I can remember much, but I think everybody had a great time.

But Steve was quickly cracking the whip on my return and I was back in the gym on the following Tuesday preparing for the next event. Because I have to keep my consistency and that’s what I’m driving towards - lifting the bar all the time, making my average stuff good enough to contend week-in, week-out. That's what practice is all about. People have always said in golf, it's not how good your good shots are, it's how good your bad ones are. That's why you practise and try and groove as repetitive an action as possible.

Now I’m at home doing bits and pieces after playiing in Tiger’s tournament in LA. I was pleased with my T3rd finish which ended my season nicely, but whatever would have happened, nobody can take away the greatest week of my sporting life to date.

Oh, and just to tell you about the launch of "Lee Westwood's PuttMaster", a tremendous golf-aid, which you can purchase through this site and save yourself a fiver!

So, that leaves me to thank you, the fans, who have supported me through thick and thin, and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!