Danny Willett had a torrid spell from the Ryder Cup until the weekend of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, where the game finally clicked for a Saturday 67 at Gary Player Country Club.

‘Unfortunately, recently there have been a lot of days when it hasn’t gone well. We’ve been playing some on and off golf of late.

‘The Nedbank was definitely a more positive weekend. It was satisfying to back up Saturday’s round with another good round on Sunday. It was just nice to shoot under par again and go deep,’ he said.

The Englishman bagged his first major with a victory at Augusta National in April, which helped him cruise into the top 10 in the world.

At present he ranks 11th in the world and second in the Race to Dubai, the latter of which concludes this week at the DP World Tour Championship.

‘If we do it right and play some good golf, then come Sunday we could hopefully regain that top spot.

‘The course doesn’t suit me 100 percent, but for the rest it’s good, so we’ll take each day as it comes,’ he said.

Standing in his way is Open Champion Henrik Stenson, who has a € 300,000 lead in the Race to Dubai. Alex Noren is nipping at the heels in third place.

‘The last few winners here have won the Race to Dubai,’ Willett said from Jumeirah Golf Estates. ‘We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to do that again. It’s been a tiring year, and this is one final push to the season.’