Graeme McDowell is hoping that 2017 is the season he gets back to his brilliant best as he prepares to start his European Tour campaign at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
The Northern Irishman has been one of Europe's biggest stars of the last decade, winning the US Open and the vital point to reclaim the Ryder Cup in 2010, and reaching fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking the following year.
Recent times have seen the popular 37 year old start a family, with the arrival of daughter Vale Esme in 2014 followed by her little brother Wills Edson in September.
While McDowell would not change a thing about the arrival of his happy clan, he admits it has distracted him somewhat from the day job, and he is now looking to once again climb the rankings from his current position of 91st.
"It has not been the kind of few years that I expect from myself," he said. "There's no doubt that there have been some factors, I wouldn't say outside of my control but things outside of golf which have definitely been distracting for me. And I wouldn't change it for the world. Having a family is something I've always wanted.
"My on-course performance has not been good enough the last few years and there are some areas that I need to refocus on, general work ethic, goal-setting, just patience levels.
"I think when I look at a year like last year, when I perhaps played a little better than my results showed. Chasing maybe too hard coming into that Ryder Cup run a few months before the Ryder Cup Team got picked. You know, just wanting it a little too badly.
"As I look, coming to the start of the next few years, I've tried to view it as a long road back toward the top of the game. That's where I want to be again, give myself chances to win Major Championships again. I know I've got a lot of things to work on.
"I've just been rededicating myself the last six or eight months and mentally I think it's really, really important that I stay super-patient with it.
That's where I want to be again, give myself chances to win Major Championships again - Graeme McDowell
"It may not happen this week and it may not happen next week but if I keep doing the things that I know that are going to make me the best I can be, eventually it will come."
A huge part of McDowell's goal is to get back into the European Ryder Cup Team after missing the defeat at Hazeltine National in the autumn. The ten-time European Tour winner was the only player to automatically qualify for the team every year from 2008 to 2014 and he would love to tee it up at Le Golf National in 2018 - a course where he won his last two titles.
"I think that certainly was a big week for me to sit at home and watch that," he said. "It was very motivating, very inspiring. When I look to France, to 2018, a golf course which I love, I certainly want to be there that's for sure.
"I think my focus had come back a long time before that Ryder Cup. But I think not being on that team was a reinforcement to me that I'm not doing what I want to do in the game.
"I'm still very, very motivated and that I still want it badly enough to go out there and do whatever it takes. I guess that's the key."
