You could say Liam Johnston is going back to where it all started. Just over a year ago, the Dumfries golfer notched his first win on a professional circuit in a Pro Golf Tour event in Morocco.
This week in the North African country, Johnston resumes his rookie campaign on the European Tour after the kind of career progression that’s been quicker than the Marrakesh Express.
“It’s hard to think what has happened in 12 months,” said Johnston ahead of the Trophee Hassan II in Rabat which runs concurrently with the Ladies European Tour’s Lalla Meryem Cup.
“I remember there was a mini order of merit running on the Pro Golf Tour which would give the leader after a few events a place in the tournament this week. At that point, I was striving to get that invitation, not thinking that in just a year I’d be coming here as a full European Tour member. It’s pretty cool.”
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Finding your feet and establishing a solid toehold on the European Tour can be as daunting a task as trying to haggle a decent price for an elaborate rug in a heaving Rabat souk.
In his first nine events on the circuit, Johnston made just two cuts but a morale-boosting eighth place outing in Kenya prior to a five-week break provided a timely tonic.
“I needed that,” said the 26-year-old with a palpable sense of relief. “It was nice to have that feeling of being in contention and that result arrived just at the right time. I was aiming for a top-five to qualify for the Malaysian event the following week but actually not getting into that tournament allowed me the time off to work on things I needed to.”
Technical tune-ups are par for the course in this game of fine margins but the psychological cogs and pistons need to be kept in good running order too.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs, I didn’t get off to a great start to the season but the last couple of events before the break have given me something to build on,” he said. “There was a spell when I was thinking of too many technical things and getting in my own way a bit instead of just playing golf.
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“I was getting a bit uptight. You want to prove yourself when you’re out here and you maybe start forcing things. There’s no quick fix but I’ve been trying to get back to what I was doing last year when I was playing good golf and that seems to have worked over the last couple of events.”
Johnston will be the first to admit that he’s hardly what you’d call Mr Consistency. On his maiden season on the Challenge Tour last year, he missed more cuts than he made but, importantly, he won twice and earned promotion to the main circuit. After his first win he didn’t finish higher than 22nd in his next 11 events before he won again.
Johnston is now looking for that spark to ignite his season.The performances of his fellow Scottish rookies like David Law, a winner on the tour in Australia back in February, and Robert MacIntyre, the Oban left-hander who has made 10 of his first 11 cuts, left Johnston feeling like he was playing catch up.
“The main goal at the start of the year is to keep your card and with Robert and David getting off to hot starts, I was desperately wanting to do the same,” he said. “I think I got a bit impatient as nothing was really happening for me.
“But what others do is irrelevant to my career. They are on their own journey and I’ll have good results of my own. It’s a long old season and every week it’s just relentless.
“If the conditions are good, people will go really low and you have to be on top of your game. There’s no let up and you can quickly get left behind. But you never know when it will be your week. Hopefully it will be mine soon.”
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