Calum Hill believes the best is yet to come

Calum Hill and caddie Phil Morbey during the third round of the Saudi International. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Calum, from Kinross, recorded a career high T4 at the recent Saudi International, an event stacked with Major winners and Ryder Cup stars.

But the 26-year-old, who was guided by now permanent caddie Phil Morbey, outperformed most of them across four days.

He came up just short, but the household names finishing above him, eventual winner and world number one Dustin Johnson, US Open winner Justin Rose and American Ryder Cup player Tony Finau show the lofty company he was keeping.

Reflecting on his excellent tournament, Calum believes he wasn’t actually at his best.

He said: “It was interesting to see that I didn’t need to have all cylinders firing to have a good performance.

"It didn’t feel like it was the A game for me but it resulted in a very good finish so it’s nice to have that experience and outcome and realise I don’t need to have everything to go my way and be perfect.”

He certainly wasn’t starstruck by those he shared the top end of the leaderboard with come Sunday afternoon.

Although huge names in the game, Calum believes that, come the business end of a tournament, they are simply targets to be shot at.

"It’s just a golf tournament and you’re trying to play as hard as you can,” said the former Kinross High pupil.

"Whoever is above you? you just play better.

"Somedays it’s Dustin Johnson and other days it’ll be someone else.

"You just have to hope it’s you at some point.”

Calum was partnered by Morbey at the Saudi International with it announced this week that the vastly experienced caddie will be replacing his brother Ian on the bag permanently. Morbey helped guide Ian Woosnam to his Masters victory in 1991 and the local tour pro says his experience is already proving invaluable.

“It is hard to put a value on how important experience can be, especially in pressure situations,” said the 26-year-old. “It’s impressive and admirable how he goes about his business and he helped make things easier for me. I was impressed by his ability to judge factors for golf shots. His wind judgement, or lies in rough, and his expectation of how the ball would react in certain scenarios.”