Danny Willett is looking forward to finally teeing it up competitively at Saujana Golf and Country Club at this week's Maybank Championship.
The Englishman arrived in Kuala Lumpur as first reserve in 2009 but did not get in the field, although he has enjoyed some success in Malaysia since, registering three top tens in the Maybank Malaysian Open.
Saujana G&CC now makes its return to the European Tour International Schedule for the first time in eight years and Willett - who has played the course privately - is excited by the challenge of a layout he thinks the entire field will enjoy.
"This golf course gives you a lot of choices," he said. "A lot of courses you’re hitting driver every hole and you don’t have to think much about it, every hole looks pretty similar. I find that a lot of the golf courses in Asia give you a lot of choices and this one highlights that perfectly.
“If you want to take on the golf course from the tee, it gets pretty tight from around 300 to 330 yards. If you want to lay it back you need to avoid a few of the fairway bunkers or else you can lay it short of them.
“It gives you loads of options, whether or not you want to hit a wedge into the green or an eight iron into the green or a six iron into the green. That then determines whether or not you want to hit driver, three wood or five wood.
“That for us golfers is fun to play, it’s not the same. You have to speak to your caddie and ask him what he thinks, instead of him just standing there and giving you driver and then walking down the fairway.
“I think if you were to speak to the guys throughout this week, they’ll probably be hitting a lot of different golf clubs. That highlights good golf courses for me, when it gives you options, even though you’re all trying to get to the same place.”
Willett enjoyed a successful start to 2016 and carried that momentum into winning his first Major Championship at the Masters Tournament and finishing second in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex for the second consecutive season.
I’m trying to find a good balance between my expectations and what I want to achieve - Danny Willett
The 29 year old admits his form in the second half of the campaign - with one top ten in 13 events - was not up to his very high standards, but he believes he is now better-equipped to cope with the expectations and pressures of being a Major champion.
“I tried not to put too much pressure on myself after Augusta but that expectation level goes up because you know what you can achieve when you play well so it’s very difficult to drop those levels," he said.
“But unfortunately if you keep those levels high all the time then frustration levels sometimes match, so I’m trying to find a good balance between my expectations and what I want to achieve.
"One thing I’ve found difficult is lowering those expectation levels and ultimately playing better. It’ll be nice to get my name on a few more Major trophies.
“I think if you look at it on the whole it was a great year. If you break it down into sections, there were definitely some better than others so I’m just trying to look back on the bad sections and try and see where it went wrong and try and improve on that."
