By Ricky Dimon
The tennis portion of Rafael Nadal’s offseason in between the 2017 and 2018 campaigns will begin in short order, but last weekend the it involved his second favorite sport: golf. Well, perhaps golf is his third favorite sport if you consider fishing a sport.

Whatever the case, Nadal recently vacationed with friends and family in the Bahamas and paid a visit to the Hero World Challenge. That is a professional golf tournament hosted annually by Tiger Woods, and this year Woods was healthy enough to play in it. The 41-year-old American was in Nadal’s box for the Spaniard’s U.S. Open semifinal victory over Juan Martin Del Potro, so now it was Nadal’s turn to sit back and watch Tiger at work. Unsurprisingly, Tiger did not win the Hero World Challenge like Nadal won the U.S. Open. But the 14-time major champion performed admirably in his first appearance since February, as he tied for ninth place at 8-under par.

Nadal is scheduled to begin his offseason training this week in Mallorca. Good friend Joao Sousa, Portugal’s top play, will arrive in two weeks to practice with the world No. 1 five days from Dec. 18 through Dec. 22.

“We will be in Barcelona for the first two weeks of the preseason, followed by a week in Tenerife and five days in Mallorca,” Sousa’s coach, Frederico Marques, said. “We want to beat the best and learn from the best. Both Joao and I have a very good relationship with several top 10 players and we will take advantage of this to learn, work, and improve the aspects that we think are appropriate to continue to evolve.”

Nadal is also in the field for the prestigious six-man Abu Dhabi exhibition later in December, just prior to the start of the 2018 ATP World Tour season. He is joined by Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, and Pablo Carreno Busta. As the top two seeds Nadal and Djokovic have byes to the semifinals. Nadal awaits either Wawrinka or Carreno Busta, while Djokovic will face the winner of a quarterfinal between Thiem and Raonic.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.