Yorkshire golfer Sam Bairstow using Bahrain challenge to fuel bid to get back in contention on DP World Tour

The 25-year-old lefty, who only graduated to the top circuit from the Challenge Tour in the autumn, had teed off in the fourth round of his sixth event in the second-to-last group.

It was his first time contending for a title among the big boys.

That it went sideways owed much to a few shots here and there, as he puts it, and more damagingly a triple-bogey on the second hole which ended his hopes early.

But it is how he now uses that experience that will craft the narrative of his rookie season, should he find himself in that position again.

“I said to my caddie after that it’s good we’ve got one of them out of the way early on, it’s the first DP event I’ve been in contention in with the chance to win,” Bairstow told The Yorkshire Post ahead of teeing it off again at this week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on the back of a consistent run of four finishes between 23rd and 34th.

“Now I know how it feels, hopefully that helps and when I get in a situation like that again this year I can take the positives from what I felt that day and take it into that.

“There was disappointment at the end,” he adds. “I wouldn’t really say it was because I was nervous, it was just I hit three or four bad shots.

“After triple bogeying the second I probably tried pressing too much to try and make those shots back when I didn’t really need to, because if I’d have shot level-par that day I’d have finished sixth.

“But you can’t look at it like that, you’ve got to learn to stick to the game plan, do what you can and not try and push too hard.”

Presented with the same scenario again, would he play for a top-10 or stay aggressive and try to win?

“Top-10s are great, but I’m trying to win,” he replies. “After the triple it took winning out of the equation.

“You’ve just got to stick to your game plan, play your game and see where you end up really, that’s the best way to approach it.

“If you start thinking about top-10s you’ll probably start playing too defensive or too aggressive and that doesn’t help anyone really.”

It is a good perspective to have, and a long way from where he was last summer when the former Yorkshire player who won the Brabazon Trophy in a strong amateur career, found himself a little lost in his first year among the professionals on the Challenge Tour.

“I was struggling with being away a lot, and on the course I wasn’t playing well enough,” says Bairstow.

“It left me wondering if I wanted to actually do it.

“But then I started seeing a new psychologist and that put things into perspective.

“I’d been moaning quite a bit, probably getting too down on myself. He gave me - not so much a telling off - but a reminder that you’re good at this game, let’s try and make something of it. That helped a lot.

“I always felt my game was going to be good enough so when I didn’t see any results I got down on myself. It was hard doing all the travelling and not seeing any returns.

“But after that meeting and from the middle of July onwards I’ve played some really good stuff, missed just one cut and had three or four top-fives and a win.

“Now looking back on it, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved since July.”

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He qualified for the Open for a second successive year and his breakthrough win came on the Challenge Tour in Scotland.

“At the time I didn’t realise the pressure I should have been under, winning in Scotland, it probably got me a DP World Tour card,” says Bairstow, who plays out of Hallowes Golf Club in Dronfield.

Trying to complete the hat-trick of qualifying for three successive Opens would be a natural target for most, but Bairstow is thinking bigger and longer-term.

He has ambitions to one day play on the PGA Tour via a top-10 finish on the DP World Tour, so instead will focus on trying to get into the Kentucky Championship and Barracuda Championship which are co-sanctioned events between the PGA and DP tours that take place around the all-consuming Open week.

“I’ve not decided on the Open yet because planning more of a schedule for the DP is more important than the Open,” says Bairstow, who noted how fellow Yorkshireman Dan Brown used the same events in America last year to transform his rookie season on the DP World Tour into a winning one.

“If everything goes to plan then hopefully I’ll play many more Opens over the next five or ten years.

“Hopefully I can keep this run going, hit a few close and give myself a few birdie chances.

“Qualifying for Dubai (top 50) is the main goal. That’ll give me good leverage for next year to hopefully push on and get a PGA Tour card.”