ANDY Sullivan has targeted a return to winning ways at the British Masters after putting the pressure of his Ryder Cup debut behind him.
Sullivan looked to have sealed his place in the side after claiming his third European Tour title in last year’s Portugal Masters and following it with four more top-six finishes, including pushing Rory McIlroy all the way in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
However, missed cuts in the last two qualifying events meant the 29-year-old was not 100 per cent certain of sealing his place on Darren Clarke’s side until a few weeks before competing at Hazeltine.
Sullivan was paired with McIlroy in Friday’s opening foursomes session and hit the first tee shot, but found water off the tee on the 17th as the European pair lost to Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, having been two up with four to play.
With the holders 4-0 down after that first session, Clarke leant heavily on experienced – but off-form – wild cards Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, meaning rookies Sullivan, Chris Wood and Matt Fitzpatrick only played once before Sunday’s singles.
“I feel like it’s a lot of weight off my shoulders now with the Ryder Cup done, I can try to get back to winning ways,” Sullivan, who lost to Brandt Snedeker in the singles, said.
“There was a lot of pressure for me, especially at the end, trying to get into that team and it sort of took away from going out there trying to win events.
“It’s nice to get back and prepare and trying to win tournaments and not thinking about how many Order of Merit points I’m going to pick up and things likes that.
“I want to try to have as big a finish as possible and get myself cemented in the top 50 in the world and make sure I’m ready for all the Majors again and stuff next year.
“If I do that, I’ll have picked up some top finishes somewhere along the line.”
Sullivan, who is 14th in the Race to Dubai, took part in the inaugural Hero Challenge on Tuesday evening, which featured eight European Tour professionals contesting a one-hole shoot-out under floodlights.
More than 2,000 people watched the action on a specially-constructed par-three on The Grove’s 18th hole and Sullivan said: “It’s a fantastic way to showcase the characters we have on the European Tour and show that golf is not an old man’s game, and it is actually fun to play golf.”
Sullivan’s Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood echoed those sentiments and said the concept could even be expanded to full events.
“Definitely,” Westwood said. “Normally people are off work at night, so that’s one good reason to have it. I’ve played night golf. I’ve played with the glow-in-the-dark golf balls. It’s great fun.
“It’s something that golf needs to do. It needs to jazz itself up a little bit. I read stuff on the game and people do get a bit bored with 72-hole tournaments week-in, week-out.”
