Connor Syme hoping that practice can make perfect in 2019

Towards the end of his maiden campaign on the European Tour in 2018, the Drumoig 23-year-old admits he felt burnt out by his heavy schedule.

The amount of competitions he played also had a negative impact on his game, Connor says, with practice being neglected in favour of tournaments.

But after a refreshing break over the festive period, and a chance to spend some time working with dad and coach Stuart at Drumoig Golf Centre, Connor reckons he has his game in good shape heading into the new season, and is determined to learn from the last campaign.

There are already signs that the break and practice over winter is paying dividends, with Connor finishing inside the top 50 at the Handa Vic Open in Australia and then reaching the matchplay stages at the ISPS Handa World Super Six a week later.

“I was really happy with how I played in Australia after going into it on the back of a tough run towards the end of last year,” he said.

“There was a lot of hard work done over the winter with my dad and I also spent a lot of time just recharging.

“It was good to have that six or seven weeks off.”

The first year on tour was always likely to be a learning experience for the recently turned pro, and he admits he made mistakes with his scheduling.

“I played a lot of golf and got into a few bad habits with my swing,” he conceded.

“My takeaway was bad and that’s something we’ve been working on.

“If anything I played too much golf and didn’t allow myself the time to recover and practice more.

“That’s something I’ll be putting right this year and don’t plan on being away from home for more than three weeks.

“Everybody is different, but I think that’s what’s going to work for me.”

Connor was speaking before making the trip to Oman where he was first reserve to compete in the Oman Open, taking a place in the tournament at the last minute.

Losing his European Tour card at the end of last season may mean similar scrambles to take places on the main tour throughout the year.

But it’s something Connor is content to do if it means a start on the European Tour as well as playing at the more lucrative Challenge Tour competitions.

“I’m looking forward to this year,” he said.

“I’ll be playing the bigger events on the Challenge Tour and working with my management company to get onto European Tour events as much as I can.

“The schedule for the Challenge Tour is still a bit up in the air at the moment, but hopefully before then we can get into Qatar (European Tour) and Kenya (ET) in a couple of weeks time.”