Benn Barham believes he can take a lot of positives from the way he has started the new European Tour golf season.

The 33-year-old is lying 51st on the moneylist with 18,300 Euros after playing in three of the opening four tournaments as he seeks to make up for the disappointment of last year when he failed to retain his full playing card for the first time since 2006.

Barham was back home in Tenterden this week after missing the cut in the Joburg Open last weekend but he finished joint 13th in the Africa Open the previous week and said: "I’m pleased with the way things have gone so far and I can take a lot of positives from my performances.

"The one good thing that has come from having a bad season last year is that it has made me work harder and it probably gave me the kick up the back-side that I needed."

But he now has at least a three-week break before playing in his next tournament, the Avantha Masters in New Delhi, saying: "I’m hoping that I will get in automatically but if not I will try to obtain a sponsors’ invitation."

And Barham admitted that he will have to decide soon whether to continue relying on sponsors’ invitations to get into European Tour events or instead switch his focus to the Challenge Tour and try to regain his full tour card by that route.

He said: "I might have to do a lot of letter writing to tournament sponsors if I want to concentrate on playing in Europeam Tour events but that’s all part of dealing with the situation that I’m now in."