The 38-year-old golfer has risen to number 12 in the world rankings and admitted that was one of his goals for the year because he is pleased with his current game.

He told Golf Monthly magazine: “That was one of my targets for this year, to climb higher than I ever have in the rankings, so it was nice to put a line through that one.

“My level of consistency has been good, especially this last couple of years.

“I’m 38 now, so I’m not old, but I’ve been on tour for a long time now.

“It’s good to know I’m still as hungry and competitive as I was starting out.

“I do my day-to-day stuff as best I can and the rankings take care of themselves.”

The golfer wishes he had won more tournaments but knows just how competitive the game is right now.

He added: “As far not winning enough, yeah, I feel that way too, even though we all know just how hard it is to win out here.

“I’d had six individual wins coming into this year, and Pebble was my 10th runner-up finish.

“If you could flip those numbers, I’d be a lot happier.

“But sometimes you have to accept you’ve done your best and it wasn’t meant to be.”