GOLF/Dubai Desert Classic: If some sort of conflict in the Gulf region is pending, and Ernie Els's clairvoyant tendencies puts the date at March 14th "at the earliest", then it isn't immediately obvious around the Emirates Golf Club. This development - which stages the Dubai Desert Classic - symbolises the regeneration that oil money has bestowed on a previously barren desert landscape.

And, with the shells of new skyscrapers stretching upwards around the Majlis course, there was an announcement here yesterday that another €25 million course, to be called Arabian Ranches, is planned nearby.

In short, life - for the present, at least - goes on, war or no war.

Yet, the absence of a number of players, most obviously Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie, presents another side to the idyllic picture, both deeming the trip one too far with the threat of war in Iraq hanging in the air.

Others agonised over whether to travel. Els, though, is glad that he did. The defending champion, Els, using his own private jet, first stopped off at his home in Orlando and then at a second abode in London on his way here after his first-round defeat in the world matchplay in California.

"I don't fear for my safety at all," he insisted.

In many ways, the presence of Els - the world's number two - has proved to be the salvation of the tournament, giving it the credibility it deserves.

The South African has already won four times this year - twice on the US Tour, twice on the European Tour - and is the headline act in a tournament which also features six Irish players, although Padraig Harrington's mystifying tendency to pick up injuries has surfaced yet again.

Last year, Harrington was troubled firstly by the recurrence of an old ankle injury and then by a neck-cum-back injury that was sustained in the midst of the US PGA. Yesterday, he had to receive treatment on a new injury, this one to his right shoulder.

"If I was a gambling man, I'd say I'll be able to play. It's something that has flared up in the past 24 hours and I just seem to be prone to these things. There is no damage to my joints and all I can do is continue to have treatment and to take anti-inflammatory tablets," said Harrington.

The injury has clearly depressed Harrington. Much of his fitness regime over the winter months was designed to prevent the occurrence of injuries and where this one has come from has him mystified.

"It's not good and I'd like to know why. I've changed my sleeping posture so that I don't damage the left-hand side," he said in a clutching-at-straws kind of way, adding: "My right shoulder is pulling on my neck and I can't complete my backswing."

It seems the only good news for Harrington is that he has an afternoon tee-time, so he can have further treatment. For the rest of the Irish - Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Graeme McDowell, the last of the contingent to arrive after making the cut in the Tucson Open - there are no such injury worries.

Indeed, Lawrie, who has missed the cut in his last four events, had good news for a change; a phone call from the Team Ireland Golf Trust to the effect he has been granted €25,000. Under a cloudless sky on the range, the news seemed to make things even brighter.

The Majlis course, though, has been toughened in an attempt to prevent the kind of score that was evident two years ago when Thomas Bjorn won with a total of 22-under-par. The fairways have been narrowed and, in many places, the rough has been thickened. It is not only the course, but one of the hottest players on current form, that most players believe needs to be overcome if the €291,994 top prize is to be garnered.

Although it was a bit like stating the obvious, Bjorn - who has a home in Dubai and who reckoned he was contacted by "about 220" players on tour to see if it was safe to make the journey - made the point anyway that Els is the player "we all have to beat. I've never seen anybody hit the ball that far and that straight, so he's difficult to go up against at the moment."

Els has been the quintessential globetrotter so far this season in collecting titles. His two wins in Hawaii were followed by a runner-up finish in Singapore - "probably the only mistake I made in my schedule", he admitted - before going on to win twice in Australia. The criss-crossing of time zones doesn't appear to have affected him, and he looked typically relaxed and at home in Dubai on the eve of the defence of his title.

"Tired? Why should I be? I'm a fit young man," joked Els.

Of course, Els has every reason to feel relaxed. The Emirates course has been good to him - in winning for the first time in 1994, he shot a course record 61; and, when winning last year, the current world number two had four rounds in the 60s in constructing a four-shot winning margin over Niclas Fasth. In all, he has played 20 rounds of golf over the course and never once been over par. It is a course designed for long, straight hitting which falls right into Els's lap.

So, he heads into the defence of the Desert Classic as the man all the others know they have to beat . . . but also aware that the threat of military action in Iraq puts a perspective on what professional golf is all about.

As the man known as The Big Easy said, "there are a lot of things happening in the world. All we're trying to do is to make pars and birdies."