Danny Willett on LIV Golf series and his plans for the summer

The career of the 34-year-old from Sheffield has been feast or famine in recent years with long periods of modest form punctuated by huge wins, like the Masters, DP World Championship, the BMW PGA Championship and last October’s Alfred Dunhill Links.

It has seen him drop out of the world’s top 100 and will result in him missing next week’s PGA Championship unless he can win the Byron Nelson in Dallas from Thursday.

Fresh from a 16th-place finish at the British Masters he hosted, Willett said: “This last five months have been quite an even keel for me. That’s what we went for, even after Dunhill.

“For myself and Foles (coach Sean Foley) that’s one thing we wanted to do over the winter period was to get that consistency back in ball flight and how things feel on a day-to-day basis.

“You talk about little gains and little ticks of what you’re trying to perform every day and we’re gaining nicely in that diretion.

“I have no issues getting in contention and knowing that if I get in contention, I’m going to be fine.

“It was the getting in contention that I was struggling with before.

“So hopefully this is going to give me a few more bites at the cherry.”

Willett will focus most of his efforts now on retaining his playing privileges on the PGA Tour and has shunned the opportunity to join the lucrative but controversial LIV Golf series which kicks off at Centurion in London in June.

“My main focus was to keep my head down and try to get as many points in the FedEx and in Europe as possible,” said Willett, who is currently ranked 26th in the world and 150th on the FedEx Cup standings.

“My main goal was to try to focus on what I was doing in golf and kind of see what happened with everything else.”

Willett, meanwhile, secured a £19,000 donation to Prostate Cancer UK after carding 19 birdies across the four rounds of the Betfred British Masters.

For a second successive year the 2016 Masters Tournament winner selected Prostate Cancer UK as the tournament’s Official Charity and title sponsors Betfred pledged to donate £1,000 for every birdie and £2,000 for every eagle made by Willett at The Belfry directly to the charity.

The 34-year-old secured £12,000 before the weekend, carding eight birdies alone during Friday’s second round on the iconic Brabazon Course. He then recorded seven further birdies during Saturday and Sunday’s rounds for a £19,000 total.

Over the last two years as host of the Betfred British Masters, Willett alone has raised £38,000 for the charity as Betfred also donated £1,000 for every birdie made by the Yorkshireman in 2021.

The eight-time DP World Tour winner is a long-term supporter of Prostate Cancer UK and proudly wore the charity’s ‘Man of Men’ badge during the tournament as 50,000 spectators descended on the four-time Ryder Cup venue across the week.

“It’s an amazing contribution,” said Willett. “Betfred’s help during the week has been phenomenal, and it’s nice to actually get the guys in and watch some golf live and have some interaction with fans. It’s been a really special week.

“It shows their massive support over these last two years, with me being the host and the even the previous three or four years before that in sponsoring the British Masters, they have been tremendous in it, during COVID to still keep up the sponsorship and prize fund as they have, they have been amazing.

“Last year at the tournament, there were no fans due to COVID-19. Not only have we raised a lot of money for Prostate Cancer UK, we have also raised a lot of awareness about the disease. Fans were able to go to the tented village this week, speak to people about it and have a one-on-one interaction with a representative from the charity.”