Danny Willett needs more rounds under his belt as he seeks to gatecrash FedEx Cup play-offs

Sheffield's Danny Willett in action at the Open at Hoylake (Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Danny Willett says he needs to be playing more to improve his game but accepts he needs good results to make that happen.

Having scraped into the weekend on three over par, the 35-year-old from Sheffield never really got going over the closing two days at the 151st Open.

He shot a 75 on Saturday to leave him in the first group out with Christo Lambrecht, the South African amateur who won the silver medal, on the Sunday, shooting a 73 to finish nine over par.

“It was disappointing,” admitted Willett, pictured.

Danny Willett of England looks on on the 17th green on Day Four of The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on July 23 (Picture: Luke Walker/Getty Images for HSBC)

“I felt like we hit better shots than kind of the score that we produced.

“It’s tough when it's that windy. At times you feel like you hit good golf shots and they just drift a little bit more.

"A week off now and do a little bit of work and see where we're at.”

After that he has one last chance to get into the lucrative FedEx Cup play-offs at the Wyndham Championship in Greater Greensboro from August 3, which if he fails to do will mean more tournaments back on the DP World Tour which doesn’t get going again until August 17 in Northern Ireland.

“It's probably playing more,” said the former Masters champion, who is currently 81st on the PGA Tour points list, needing to get into the top 70.

"You can always get it to look pretty and do whatever, but it needs to be more functional and hitting certain shots with certain winds, which has been quite fun this week.

"Obviously we've had a couple of different wind directions, and this golf course has played really great with them all. It's been fun to do that this week and to be around for the four days.”

He added: “I’ll go back out and play Wyndham and see if we can have a final push there and a good week, and hopefully we can get that into the FedExCup play-off in Memphis. If not, yeah, a few weeks off and the looking at getting back and playing a few DP World Tour events.”

Willett’s fellow Yorkshire major winner Matt Fitzpatrick put himself in position to challenge for a top-10 finish with a 67 on Saturday.

But the 2022 US Open champion fell back to two over par with a 75 on Sunday that included two double bogeys on the third and the 10th holes.