DAVID Howell thanked Swindon Advertiser readers for the “lovely honour” of naming his victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as 2013’s Performance of the Year.

Howell won his first title in seven years and 124 days in September, seeing off Peter Uihlein in a play-off at the famous Old Course at St Andrew’s.

The Broome Manor pro’s win was one of the most popular of the season on the European Tour and helped catapult Howell up the world rankings, putting him in with a chance of being selected for this autumn’s Ryder Cup.

And it was evidently well received in Swindon, too, as Adver readers picked Howell’s success above Swindon Town’s victory at QPR in the Capital One Cup, Swindon Robins’ excellent win at King’s Lynn and Toby Horton’s double hundred for Goatacre.

Howell was unable to attend Thursday night’s ceremony to collect his gong as he is competing in South Africa - his father Ray picked up the prize on his behalf - but the 37-year-old said he was honoured to still be in the thoughts of the Swindon public.

“The nice thing is, though I’m a Swindon boy through and through it’s been a long time since I’ve lived and practiced regularly in Swindon full-time,” he said. “For people to still be following me full-time through something of the quality of the Advertiser is lovely and for my comeback victory to be worthy enough for people to nominate me for performance of the year is a lovely honour.

“It was certainly my best performance in seven years and it was great for me to have produced that quality of golf at the home of golf.

“To collect the title there was a real thrill.

“I’m sure every golfer would appreciate that from their home town. I can only talk about the support I’ve had from Swindonians and the people of Wiltshire over the years and it’s been tremendous.

“It’s not a golfing county, shall we say, it’s not like we’ve got a tournament there for instance but we’ve got a lot of keen golfers in the Swindon area and Wiltshire and beyond.

“To be the focal point of their attention occasionally is lovely and I want to thank everyone who’s voted.”