Russell Knox keen to get back in world's top 50

Russell Knox tees off during the DP World Tour Championship ProAm. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty

The 33-year-old claimed a third title triumph in four seasons with victory in the Irish Open, one of the European Tour’s Rolex Series events, at Ballyliffin in July.

That lifted him back inside the world’s top 50 for a brief spell but, having slipped a bit over the past few months, he heads into the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai sitting 65th in the rankings.

“It’s been a good year and I need to be good to myself and not get down on things such as not finishing the FedEx Cup the way I would have wanted to,” said Knox, the sole Scot in the 60-man field at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

“At the same time, there was lots of good stuff and, if someone had of said to me at the start of my career that you are going to win one tournament a year for the next 10 years, I would have taken that.

“However, I’m at the stage of my career when I want to try to take my game to the next level. Either I stay the same or I get worse or I get much better, so now it’s up to me to get myself back in the top 50 and start knocking on the victory door at the majors. So, I just have to find a way to elevate my game a little bit but, in saying that, it does not mean re-inventing the wheel.”

Knox, who sits 14th in the Race to Dubai and is still in with a chance of becoming the first Scot since Paul Lawrie in 2012 to finish in the top 10, is making his debut in the $8 million season-ending event.

“It’s been a strange year because, if you take out that summer of finishing second in France and first in Ireland, (where he beat Kiwi Ryan Fox in a play-off) it has been like  a C-plus or a B-minus year,” he added.

“I have played a lot of decent golf but not like super, exotic golf as I haven’t quite felt as maybe as good as I needed to. But a win this week would turn that B-minus into an A and that would be very rewarding.”