Andy Sullivan is expecting a shootout as he looks to defend his title at the Portugal Masters.
The Englishman claimed his third trophy of the 2015 season at Victoria Clube de Golfe, finishing nine shots ahead of Chris Wood in front of his band of travelling fans that became known as the Sully Army.
Their number has swelled to 70 this year and they will be expecting big things from their hero just two weeks after he represented Europe at The Ryder Cup.
Sullivan won with a score of 23 under last year and he is expecting many of the field to go low again this week.
"It's fantastic to be back and last year was unbelievable," he said. "It's going to be mega tough to go out there and win, let alone win by nine, so my goal is just to go out there and continue playing the way I am and hopefully the putter gets warm.
"It's been cold the last couple of weeks. It would be nice to get putter going. Things like that start happening, I feel like I can find the form that got me to the victory last year.
"I enjoy going at the pins and taking a few risks out there. I enjoy the course generally. It's always a course I found that suits my game.
I think if you get to 20 under, I think that's going to be somewhere there or thereabouts - Andy Sullivan
"Got to manoeuvre it off the tee and be aggressive into the greens. Hopefully I can find more of the same that we did last year for them. It's always nice to get back to places where you've hit good shots and you remember standing on the fairways and remember hitting good shots.
"I think if you get to 20 under, I think that's going to be somewhere there or thereabouts."
Sullivan's three wins in 2015 were the first of his European Tour career and he has yet to add to that tally with top tens at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the 100th Open de France and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
The 29 year old feels his form has been something of a rollercoaster in 2016 but at 15th in the Race to Dubai, he admits it is difficult to be downhearted.
"I think it was always going to be a tough year for me in the sense of going into a season and winning three times," he said.
"Going into this season, obviously at the start of the year, I think the expectations were quite high and finishing second in Dubai so early on in the season, I felt like I had the appetite to go out there and win again.
"Then I just lost my form a little bit and then through Ireland and French and Scottish and The Open, I felt like I found my form again and then it dipped off again and now I feel like I've found it again.
"It's been a bit of an up-and-down year. Results have not been quite as good as I wanted and I'm still up there on the Order of Merit. It is a little bit disappointing but if it's going to be a disappointing year for me for the rest of my career, I think I'll take it."
