INSPIRATION will not be in short supply for North Yorkshire’s king of clubs Simon Dyson tomorrow (Thursday).

That is when he opens his campaign in the third Major of the season, The Open, at a St Andrews venue where he revelled in his greatest professional success just nine months ago.

Back then, Dyson shredded a mega-calibre field to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

It was his fourth European Tour title and his second in 2009 to go with the brace of crowns he collected in 2005. But the significant factor was that the Alfred Dunhill Links trophy was one of the most coveted outside of the four Majors, and certainly one of the leading tournaments on the European Tour.

Dyson’s triumph earned him a winner’s cheque just short of £500,000 to advance him through the £1million barrier for last year alone.

But the more momentous boost was that the conquest, in which he finished with a four-round 20-under-par total to dominate the field by three shots, rocketed the 32-year-old Malton & Norton Golf Club ace into the top 50 bracket of the world’s leading golfers.

Staying among that elite accorded him the right to play in all four Majors this season.

Tomorrow is the third such high-class competition following his appearances at the US Masters and the US Open, the latter taking place just last month. However, Dyson will be seeking far better fortune than he had in those American outings at Augusta and Pebble Beach respectively.

He missed the midway cuts in both as he has in his last tournaments this season – the French Open and last week’s Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

That pair of wipe-outs also tumbled Dyson out of the nine automatic picks for the European Ryder Cup team later this year after he had occupied the prestigious place for almost the last year.

But if anywhere is going to help to restore an upswing in fortune then it is St Andrews – recognized as the spiritual home of the game. The links course has always been one of Dyson’s favourites.

“I always seem to do well there and, of course, winning the Alfred Dunhill Links there was just amazing,” said the York-born world number 77.

Another fond memory for Dyson is that he had the distinction of hitting the first tee shot in the 2005 Open Championship at St Andrews.

Tomorrow he is one of the earliest starters in a threesome comprising America’s Jason Dufner and 2008 Ryder Cup player Soren Hanson from Norway.

They will go out at three minutes past seven tomorrow morning, but it will be the figures 68 66 68 and 66 which will most occupy Dyson’s mind.

They are the four rounds which he posted in smashing asunder a world-class entry list the last time he picked up a club at one of the game’s greatest stages. A repeat show could not be more timely as Dyson strives for his trademark powerful finish to each of his last five seasons.