Chris Wood will head to the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters next week with a spring in his step after finding his form to finish second at the NBO Oman Open.
After a stellar 2016 that saw him win the BMW PGA Championship and make the Ryder Cup Team, the Englishman had just three top tens in 2017 and missed his first three cuts this season.
That was all forgotten at Al Mouj Golf, however, as the 30 year old did battle down the stretch on Sunday only to be narrowly edged out by friend Joost Luiten and denied a fourth European Tour title.
The first of those crowns came in Qatar in 2013 and while Wood was disappointed not to win in Muscat, he was happy to be in contention once again.
"You play poorly for six or eight months without ever thinking you'd put yourself in contention in a tournament and then when you do you're gutted when you don't win," he said.
"I'm pretty down really but in the grand scheme of things it's night and day to how I've been. After a couple of days I'm sure I'll reflect and see it's a big step in the right direction this week.
"Joost played great to shoot four under. He's a good mate of mine. I'm annoyed that I haven't won but I'm pleased for him. We spend a lot of time together so it's great to see a friend win.
"On to Qatar where I've won before. Given I've turned up at most events with no confidence, I probably feel like I can go to an event next week with a little bit of confidence."
Julien Guerrier finished a shot behind Wood at 13 under as he recovered from a slow start to post a 71.
The Frenchman bogeyed the ninth and tenth but birdies on the 12th, 14th and 16th moved him back up the leaderboard and he was proud of his battling performance.
"I didn't start really well," he said. "I missed a few putts and if I'd made some putts it would have been different as I'd feel more positive about my round but it was tough.
"The birdie on 12 was very nice because after that I started playing much better. You have to stay patient, especially on this course, you think it's easy but it's not.
"To finish third is good. I had appendix surgery before Hong Kong so I missed the first three events so now I'm happy.
"Next week my coach is coming so we can have a chat about this week and build some confidence.
"I'm always trying to smile because sometimes you make a bogey and you feel really bad but you have to smile because the attitude is so important in this game.
"I work on my attitude and my game and it's fantastic to play under pressure and I hope I'll do more of it."
