DAVID Howell will be hoping for an early Christmas present when he takes to the course in Queensland for this week’s Australian PGA Championship.

A top-20 finish will be Howell’s ideal pre-Christmas gift to himself – though a more realistic souvenir might come in the form of a made cut for the first time this campaign.

The 44-year-old has not enjoyed the most serene start to the 2020 European Tour season following his retirement midway through the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa in November.

The two-time Ryder Cup winner did manage to put two tidy rounds together in December’s Mauritius Open though, posting a cumulative total of one under par.

However, Howell still missed out on playing the weekend by two shots as his quest to play a full week in the new season continues.

The former Broome Manor pro is not simply eyeing a full weekend on Australia’s gold coast however – Howell believes he still has the ability to hold aloft a winners trophy again before calling time on his illustrious career.

He said: “I was only speaking to someone recently and saying what a thrill it would be to win again.

“It sounds daft talking like that after the two years I’ve had, but I played some nice golf in patches last year.

“I felt really competent in Portugal at the end of the season and my golf for most of the two rounds was perfectly good enough to be in the top 20 or 30.

“I wasn’t playing well enough to win, but it was competent, so it’s still within me for sure.

“But I’ve got to do a few things differently to make sure I play golf of that quality for four rounds instead of two.”

As the curtain comes down on another calendar year of golf, Howell was clear where he can most dramatically improve moving forward in 2020.

An erratic 2019 season behind him, it is too early to tell if the 44-year-old has turned a corner in terms of his consistency yet.

Howell insists his main aim for the foreseeable future is to ensure he stays in tournaments early on by playing golf the way he used to.

He said: “I had a spell this year where I felt like I was playing OK, but then I’d make a double bogey early on and that put me behind the eight ball in a lot of tournaments.

“That gets tiring, and ironically, that kind of situation is the complete opposite of what my career has always been about.

“A lot of my best golf has been through avoiding mistakes and getting the best out of myself each day, even if my game wasn’t brilliant.”