Eugenio Chacarra insists he is taking it one week at a time as he looks to take a big step closer to winning the Race to Dubai at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship this week.
Chacarra currently leads the way at the top of the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World, having replaced long-time leader Patrick Reed following his third win of the season at the DP World India Championship.
But with enhanced points available across both Rolex Series Play-Off events - with next week's season finale at the DP World Tour Championship to come - even a win at Yas Links may not guarantee him the title and he could even be overtaken by Reed, Rory McIlroy or Casey Jarvis.
With all that in mind, the Spaniard can be forgiven for not getting ahead of himself as he strives to become just the third of his countrymen to lift the Harry Vardon Trophy after Seve Ballesteros and Jon Rahm.
"I'm not really focused on the Race to Dubai number one," he said. "I'm focused on playing my best, getting better and winning tournaments.
"Like this week, knowing that if I win the tournament, I'm going to have a better chance of winning it. So that's my only goal.
"Prepare for the course, the week, to have a chance to win on Sunday; treat it as another tournament.
"Obviously it's a Play-Off and there's going to be better scores and people pressing, but if I can play the way I've been playing all year, I like my chances on Sunday."
He added: "It's a great opportunity. At the start of year, everyone wants to win the Race to Dubai and that's obviously a hard goal to accomplish... without playing the Majors.
"But I always believed in myself. I believe I can win out here a lot and I believe I can be contending, like I did. I'm excited for the opportunity. It's better to start in first than in second. I'll take my position.
"But there's a lot of points to play with. There is tremendous players behind me, so I still need to go out there and perform."
Chacarra will have a good look at his two nearest rivals in round one as he goes out with Reed and McIlroy in the final group of the day on Thursday.
Reed has two wins this season to McIlroy's one, although McIlroy's came at the Masters, a Major which Reed himself won in 2018.
That puts Chacarra in rarified air on the first tee but the confident 26-year-old says he will not be overawed, although he will enjoy watching his "idol" McIlroy.
"I'm excited," he said. "I dream of playing with the best players in the world and I get a chance to play with Rory, first time playing with Rory. I've been watching him play since I was little. He's one of my idols. So super excited for the opportunity.
"I had a chance to play with two of the great players in India, in Justin Rose and Min Woo Lee, the first couple of rounds and I enjoyed every minute of it.
"So I'm excited to have the pressure on to go out there and show that I can compete with them like I've been doing all year. Just have some fun.
"They are both Major champions. Obviously Rory has won the Grand Slam. So everything I can learn from him... it's a round I'm going to be looking and I'm going to play my game and I know if I play my game I can compete against them and I'm excited for that opportunity."
The way he has given himself that opportunity is through an almost relentless pursuit of points that has seen him play ten of his last 11 possible events, which equates to ten of the last 12 weeks.
With guaranteed starts this week and next, you would think that he may have given himself a break in last week's gap in the schedule but instead, he was preparing himself for the task ahead to ensure he has his "A game".
"A lot of practice, a week at home getting my body ready for the heat of Abu Dhabi and Dubai," he said of his activities last week. "A lot of working out and getting some rest, obviously.
"But a lot of practice on the golf course. There's going to be enough time to rest after these two finals but I can't rest. I need to keep a good level and have a lot of players coming at me so I need to hopefully have my A game."
