Calum Hill has Dubai leader in sights after AimPoint saves day

And he talked openly afterwards about how using the AimPoint process also implemented by the likes of Bob MacIntyre and Justin Rose gives him confidence to rattle in those sort of “momentum” shots.

Hill, who is making his third appearance in the DP World Tour’s season finale, opened with a one-under-par 71 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates to sit just four off the lead, held by Dutchman Joost Luiten.

The Arizona-based Scot bemoaned the fact that he “didn’t hit enough fairways” but, other than that, he reckoned “a lot of my game was quite nice” and described his start as “okay” on a course playing a lot tougher than it normally does due to a combination of punishing rough and a gusty desert wind.

Hill holed a testing six-footer at the par-4 16th after racing his birdie attempt past the hole before making great up and downs at both the par-3 17th and par-5 18th, where he found the stream that zig-zags its way all up the middle of the fairway with his second shot.

“Yeah, it's nice to keep momentum going,” he said of those par saves to finish. “My putting has always been quite good - but I'm happy to be done with it for today!”

The AimPoint system involves players using their feet to try and work out how much a putt is likely to break and Hill implements it facing both to the hole and away from it.

“Probably,” he replied, laughing, to being asked if he could hole putts without AimPoint, “but I'm thankful I don't have to! I definitely do a much better job if I use AimPoint.

“I probably started doing it at 19 because I was kind of useless reading greens. I think my consistency is much higher, and it gives me a bit more certainty when I'm doing AimPoint.”

After being two under through ten holes and bogey-free, Grant Forrest had to settle for 73, one better than Ewen Ferguson, who dropped three shots in six holes around the turn.

Get our golf newsletter by clicking here