Paul Waring revealed his career-changing victory in Abu Dhabi has only just sunk in as he aims to secure his PGA TOUR card for next season.
The 39-year-old held his nerve to fend off a stellar field at Yas Links to lift the biggest title of his career when winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship by two shots last week.
That lifted the Englishman, who is now based in Dubai, up to fifth in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex ahead of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
It leaves him in pole position for one of the ten dual memberships on offer and that is his priority as he tees up on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in his adopted home city.
"The adrenaline has finally come out of me a little bit. It's kind of hit me what I've just achieved," Waring said. "Very proud of what I've been through and how I coped with it.
"But yeah, it's been an absolute roller coaster these last few days. I had a couple of meetings, a couple of chats with people about potentially what could happen next year and all that sort of thing. It's very exciting.
"I didn't realise the enormity of it when I was in the situation and even afterwards after lifting the trophy, everything like that, again, nothing had sunk in about what I had actually gone and achieved. As I say, now it's slowly starting to come to the front of my mind.
"I went into the event really thinking about solidifying my place in this week, really. I was 48th on the Order of Merit. Had a solid season, a few fireworks, a few top tens.
"To then and go and win in a Rolex Series, one of our biggest events outside of the Majors, to potentially locking up a PGA TOUR card and completely changing my schedule.
"I've gone from playing whatever I wanted to on the DP World Tour to potentially trying to figure out now and when to start my hopefully PGA TOUR career.
"It's something that I think we aspire, to play with the best players in the world and to forward my career, if you know what I mean.
"To go and play on that side of the pond, more World Ranking points available, to potentially get in a few of the Majors now.
"I'm knocking on the door of getting in the top 100 again and getting in the U.S. PGA Championhip and qualifying for the Open Championship. Those are the level of tournaments where I want to play.
"I've had, I'm not going to say a frustrating career, but I've always been on the cusp something and now to kick down that door and get in these events, it's massive for me."
