Stateside Scot Russell Knox is hoping to kick-start his stuttering season by turning back the golfing clock.

The 31-year-old has struggled to hit the heights of 2016 in the new season but the Inverness exile reckons a more carefree approach to his game can get him back on the straight and narrow at this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

He said: “I just hadn’t been feeling like I needed to on the course. I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I should be out there. I just need to go out there and play like a kid again and have fun. I’m not on unbelievable form this year but it is in there somewhere. It just has to come out. I maybe just need to hole a 10-footer on the first hole and I’ll be off and running.”

This time last year, Knox arrived at the plush Wentworth estate having harried Rory McIlroy all the way in the Irish Open the weekend before while an image of him plastered on a 60-foot high banner draped from the grandstand on the 18th underlined his stature.

Here in 2017, Knox is still trying to play himself out of what he calls “a little funk.” From 10 events this year, the two-time PGA Tour champ has missed the cut five times. In the last campaign, he missed just four cuts in 28 tournaments.

This sense of downbeat frustration has led to the world No 34 making a change in personnel and he has arrived in this leafy, sun-soaked stockbroker belt with a different man on his bag. It’s not a new partnership, more a rekindling of an old alliance. “His name is Johann Benson, he’s a good friend and he caddied for me four years ago,” added Knox. “I just felt I needed a little change and hopefully that will spark me into gear. I’m playing five of the next six weeks so it’s a chance to play myself into form. I won’t be playing the Irish Open but I will do the French and the Scottish before the Open.”

The £5 million worth of improvements to the West Course, with particular emphasis being placed on the much-maligned putting surfaces, have been greeted with widespread approval and Knox is relishing the challenge ahead.

He added: “It was compulsory that they made these changes. I still enjoyed playing the course last year but I’m going to enjoy it much more this time."