Calum Hill was delighted to find himself in contention yet again as he fired an opening 67 to sit at the right end of the leaderboard after day one of the 2021 Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett.
The Scot has three wins on the European Challenge Tour and, while he has yet to taste victory on the European Tour, he has shown a consistency on the 2021 Race to Dubai that suggests a win may not be far away.
He finished in a tie for fourth among a stellar field at the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers and then recorded top tens in back to back weeks in Kenya in March.
A level par final round at last week's Canary Islands Championship saw him just miss out on a fourth top ten in eight events but he shook off that disappointment with six birdies and a bogey at The Belfry - where he finished in the top ten at last season's ISPS HANDA UK Championship.
"I think the more you put yourself in that situation the more comfortable you get and the better you will do when in those situations," he said. "It has been good to be in there a few times and hopefully continue to do it.
"Played quite nicely and made a couple of good up-and-downs, didn’t drop too many shots so that was good.
"You have to drive it quite well, there are a lot of demanding tee shots and there are a few bits that you can catch yourself out going to the greens but it is a good test of golf."
Being in the UK means that Hill can have his team back around him and he revealed he has been working hard with coach David Burns, as well as renowned putting expert Phil Kenyon.
"It is nice to have my coach David here this week to fine tune things and all in good shape," he said.
"My putting has been gradually improving and becoming more consistent. I think I have always been quite a nice putter but sometimes it would streak and kind of fall for a few weeks and have kind of duff events, but it is getting more solid.
"Davy has done a lot of work and I have seen Phil Kenyon a couple of times now and it seems we have a basis of a foundational thing to kind of work through and it is steadily improving which is nice."
