Scot Martin Laird finally began his bid for Ryder Cup qualification in Hawaii last week - four months after everybody else.
Though Laird will be pleased with his RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite showing at the PGA Tour's season-opening Tournament of Champions on Monday after birdying five of his last seven holes to rocket up the leaderboard, he'll also know that competitors like Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy already started accumulating points towards Ryder Cup qualification four months ago.
The 29-year-old was forced to wait till the new year to rejoin the European Tour as an affiliate member in order to have his RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite performances count.
Laird would have had to play 13 European events last season in order to be in the points race from the start, but chose instead to focus on his playing career in the States.
He earned 22.8 rankings points for his second place at Kapalua, which has lifted him from 47th to 33rd in the world - though he's still only 40th on the cup list.
"I've been saying the last month or two I want to get off to a quick start this year and get my name up there as a name that's in contention for the team," said Laird.
"Obviously coming out here and playing RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite like that has done that for me, but I reckon I need to win at least once, maybe twice, to get on that team on points."
Laird won't play in the Sony Open this week, but will be back the following week and will play RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite every week in February.