Golf back being one of Scot's priorities after premature baby scare

His wife, Danielle, had just given birth prematurely to a daughter, Aoife, who spent two months in hospital before getting the green light to start life in her new home, with Johnston admitting there had been some “tough times” at the beginning of their journey as parents.

With lots of love and care, Aoife is now a flourishing two-year-old as her dad turns his focus back to trying to regain a DP World Tour card bid after graduating from the Challenge Tour but now called the HotelPlanner Tour along with Bob MacIntyre, Grant Forrest and David Law at the end of the 2018 campaign.

Johnston has already secured a HotelPlanner Tour card for next season, having earned a step up along with Rory Franssen as the top two players on this year’s Tartan Pro Tour, the Scottish-based circuit run by Paul Lawrie through his Five Star Sports Agency.

Having won three times on the DP World Tour’s feeder circuit, the 32-year-old will be perfectly happy to be back playing there next season. “It’s not somewhere I’m going and being a rabbit in the headlights,” he told The Scotsman. “It’s somewhere I know what I need to do to get to that next level, having done that once before.”

It will be even more exciting for him, though, if he could be sitting at the top table instead, with the leading 20 players and ties in the six-round final of the Qualifying School at Infinitum Golf in Tarragona from 7-12 November securing that privilege. “Yeah, that would be great and not just for me because it would also open up the Tartan Pro Tour promotion to Greg Dalziel,” he admitted of the player who finished third on the circuit’s order of merit.

Helped by wins in both the Andalucia - Costa del Sol Match Play 9 and the Kazakhstan Open, Dumfries man Johnston finished tenth on the 2018 Challenge Tour points list, just behind eight-placed Forrest and ahead of both MacIntyre and Law as they ended up 11th and 13th respectively.

But, as Law went on to win early in his first season on the DP World Tour and MacIntyre was crowned as Rookie of the Year before Forrest tasted victory as well on the main tour, Johnston ended up losing his card straight away after finishing 148th in the Race to Dubai.

Not helped by the fact he changed coach - that mistake was rectified by linking up again with Bothwell Castle-based PGA professional Alan McCloskey 14 months ago - on the back of that disappointment, it had been a bit of a struggle for him since then before starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel and finding fairways again with his driver this season.

“There were certainly times when it was tough and I’d say they were tied to my little one being born,” admitted the winner of both the African Amateur and Scottish Stroke-Play Championships in 2017. “My wife and I chatted about it and, if I was being brutally honest, there were days when I didn’t even want to go out and practice or even play golf. I felt I wasn’t fussed any more at that stage, but my wife kept saying to me that it wasn’t as though I hadn’t proven to myself that I couldn’t compete at a high level.

“If I was sitting here now at 32 and hadn’t played anything above potentially the Tartan Pro Tour, then, yes, I might have been thinking it was maybe time to look at something else. Yeah, there were definitely times when I thought otherwise and it was probably during Covid and just after it when I was struggling more than any other time as it was a bit of a spiral for me in terms of bad results around then. But I know I potentially have a high ceiling, so why would I not go and try to achieve that while I am still young?”

Though unable to land a win, Johnston recorded seven top-four finishes in 14 events in joining Franssen in having the top two HotelPlanner Tour spots up for grabs on the Tartan Pro Tour tied up before the season-ending Tour Championship presented by Gym Rental Company at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire.

Qualifying School second-stage test at Fontanals in Girona

“I’ve really got that hunger back, which was the thing that was killing me a bit over the last few years,” said Johnston, who, as had been due to be the case two years ago, is facing his second-stage test at Fontanals Golf Club in Girona. “When you are seeing so many bad results, you end up losing your motivation and drive a bit. You get to the stage, though, where you find yourself thinking ‘god, what else would you do?’

“I’ve got Aoife and I’d love to get a win and let her see me do that as it would be really nice. That almost drives you in itself, to be honest, to make you work hard and almost enjoy the bad weeks as much as the good ones, if that makes sense.

“That’s been one of the biggest things for me. I’d found in the past that after a bad week you’d almost get too down about them as opposed to shaking it off because you know you are good enough and need to just get on with it. I feel comfortable going out and playing again and, hopefully, I can keep kicking on and see where I can end up.”