Aaron Cockerill was trusting the process as he continued his excellent start to the 2024 season with an opening 66 at the Bahrain Championship presented by Bapco Energies.
The Canadian finished a career-high 76th on the 2023 Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex and has carried that momentum into the new campaign, finishing no lower than 32nd in five starts and securing a best Rolex Series finish of fourth at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
He arrived at Royal Golf Club 11th on the 2024 Race to Dubai and after a six under par effort, said he was glad to see his hard work paying off.
"There's been lots of good over the last two years, it's just piecing it all together but I'm starting to do that a little bit more this year so I'll just keep on with the same process," he said.
"I've been working with my swing, just minor, minor changes with my coach Derek (Ingram) at home.
"I think the iron play is coming around. There have been times in the past where I've hit one 300 down the middle, missed the green with an eight iron and made a stupid bogey and things like that - I've been a little bit cleaner in those areas this year.
"I've always been a pretty good putter so it's just very, very small things that are slowly adding up."
The 31-year-old started his opening round with a bogey but then made eight birdies with just one further dropped shot and was glad to get a score on the board with high winds forecast for day two.
"I played great," he said. "I had kind of a bad three-putt on the first hole and just decided to let it flow.
"I've had a good start to the year so it just freed me up a little bit in a weird way and I played really good the rest of the day.
"It doesn't look like it's going to be a great day (on Friday) so it's nice to get off to a good start today and we'll see what's in store for tomorrow."
