Ewen Ferguson is hoping his experience of links golf can play to his benefit as he makes his first DP World Tour title defence at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Aviv Clinics.
The Scot won twice last year following his graduation from the European Challenge Tour, with his wire-to-wire win in Northern Ireland following on from victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
With his anticipated title defence in Qatar still to come later this year, Ferguson is looking to become the first player this season to retain their crown on the DP World Tour.
Having fired a course-record 61 at Galgorm in last year's first round, the 27-year-old has proven he has a liking to the parkland layout and will now be hoping he can use his links knowledge - including his win at the Boys Amateur Championship in 2013 - as Castlerock makes its debut as the new co-host.
"I always play kind of play well on links courses, having grown up on links courses in Scotland," said Ferguson, who made his Major Championship debut at the 151st Open last month.
"But at the same time, golf is so hard and you need to work so hard to get good.
"Hopefully I can play well this week but my prep needs to be good for it. I am feeling really good and excited to get going.
"I love Galgorm to bits, I have always played well there. I have not played Castlerock before so I am gauging it.
"It is a really nice course and hopefully I can get some tips as I am playing it.
"I feel good coming into the rest of the season, hopefully starting this week I can get a [good] result."
Ferguson finished fourth at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo and 12th at the Genesis Scottish Open before he missed the cut in the final Major of the year at Royal Liverpool.
However, Ferguson took plenty of confidence from those events into the summer break and is optimistic he can build some momentum as he looks to climb from 44th in the season-long Race to Dubai Rankings in partnership with Rolex.
"I think [the break] came at the right time after a big UK stretch, it was really busy for us with a lot of golf.
"I had a nice break to recharge the batteries and it is nice to come back with some good memories from last year and hopefully I can make a good defence of my title.
“There is so much golf in the year that you are not going to play well all the time.
“I am quite happy with where my game is at, and I feel like I can get some good results between now and the end of the season. Hopefully I can start here.”
