'˜I wasn't hard on myself and knew it would turn'

Connor Syme is settling into life on the European Tour, but the next even he plays will be one of the Challenge Tours most lucrative tournaments.

At last weekend’s Tshwane Open in South Africa, the 22-year-old from Drumoig secured his highest finish as a professional, sharing 11th position.

The event brought to an end a long spell away from home in which Syme also competed at the NBO Oman Open, finishing inside the top 40, and the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters where he failed to make the cut.

The 11th place finish and the steady weekend in Oman prove he’s settling into life on the tour.

Syme is sitting out this week’s Hero Indian Open and now won’t return to the European Tour until the middle of April at the Spanish Open.

“I didn’t really get what I wanted out of Oman and Qatar,” conceded Syme.

“But I felt my game was coming together last week, I was finding a bit of form, and now I’m just really hungry to get back out there playing again.

“I’ll be at home for a couple of weeks and have a bit of time to work on a few things before going playing in a big money event on the Challenge Tour in Kenya.”

Finishing inside the top 15 on tour isn’t new to Syme who finished T12 at the Portugal Masters and T15 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship just weeks after leaving the amateur game.

But this season has been up and down, with a few missed cuts before really impressing in South Africa.

“I’d missed four cuts in a row but it wasn’t by much, at the Joburg Open and in Dubai it was only by one shot,” said Syme.

“So it was important I wasn’t too hard on myself because I knew it would turn for me pretty soon.

“I played really solid last week and to get 20 birdries was pleasing.

“I was -13 for the last 63 holes and that’ll always get you near the top of the leaderboard.”