Dan Brown the picture of calm as he heads out on DP World Tour

The 28-year-old from Northallerton had been a professional for half a decade, grinding between the satellite circuits and the Challenge Tour, waiting to take his turn at the top table.

He’d only ever had one taste of playing on the DP World Tour (the European Tour as it was back then) at the KLM Dutch Open when he was still an amateur.

But finally the Romanby Golf Club member had put a solid year together on the Challenge Tour, good enough to earn him a place at a handful of the smaller events on the 2023 DP World Tour.

It meant he went to Qualifying School in Spain in November, so often a torturous ordeal for many golfers, with a safety net. And it worked.

"Do you know what, because I’d finished 30th on the Challenge Tour rankings and I already had a category on the DP to get into a few events, I kind of went into Q School just trying to improve on what I already had,” Brown tells The Yorkshire Post.

"It wasn’t a matter of life or death like it can get for a lot of people. I was really calm all week, it was quite a nice experience.”

Brown finished third at Q School, opening the door to around 25 tournaments in the 2023 season, which began for him with three tournaments on the South Africa swing in December. He made the cut in all three and finished fifth at the South African Open.

"It felt quite normal because I knew a lot of the lads who had come off Challenge Tour so it was bit easier trying to focus on it being just another day at work,” he says of his new playing field. "Being 28 helps as well. When I played my last European Tour event I was early twenties. That experience was about taking it all in, but then going there now at 28 off a decent year on Challenge Tour, you feel like you belong."

Fifth place at the South African Open earned Brown 47,153 euros (£38,057), twice more than he had ever won from a tournament.

"At the start of the week I wasn’t sure if the golf course would suit me, it was 8,200 yards, one of the longest in the world," he says. “I’m not short but I’m not long off the tee by any means, so I was thinking it could be a bit of a grind. But I made the cut, had a good weekend and shot up the leaderboard. It’s nice to get some points on the board early. I’ve always felt I can compete wherever I play but that just solidifies it.”

That return, and the opportunities that lie in wait on the DP World Tour this year starting at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in Abu Dhabi in early February, justify the decision he made to turn pro all those years ago.

"I felt like I probably should have turned pro a year earlier, but I got a bit of a shock when I did turn pro,” says Brown, who learned to play at Bedale Golf Club, moved to Masham towards the end of an amateur career that saw him earn England caps, and then moved to Romanby.

"I was learning all the time and I certainly wouldn’t take back anything that happened, but the first two years were a struggle.

"I had a good amateur career and won a few things, so you go into professional golf thinking you’re good enough, then you get there and realise the standard is night and day.”

The long journey has taught Brown not to look too far ahead.

"I don’t like setting goals, I just take care of my game. You can get caught up in your goals and then get really disappointed if you don’t achieve them when actually if you’re improving year on year, things will fall into place.”