A Down Under brace will hopefully enable Simon Dyson to keep his year in tip-top condition.

North Yorkshire's tsar of pars is in the Australian city of Melbourne ahead of the start of the Mastercard Masters, which begins tomorrow at the Huntingdale Golf Club.

The tournament is co-sanctioned for both the Australasian Tour and the 2007 European Tour in which, already after two events, Dyson is in 39th spot after winnings of more than £16,750.

After the Melbourne event, Dyson makes the trip across the Tasman Sea to the Blue Chip New Zealand Open at the Gulf Harbour Country Club in Auckland from November 29 to December 3. That will be his last event of the year ahead of taking a vacation before resuming with the Abhu Dhabi Cham-pionship in the Middle East in mid-January.

Dyson, of course, enjoyed a spectacular 2006 European Tour in which he broke his title duck with the seizure of the Indonesian Open last spring. The Malton and Norton Golf Club ace followed up with a second Euro crown, the KLM Open in Holland in the summer, to finish 18th in the European Order of Merit - his highest placing in six years as a professional - with yearly earnings totalling almost £750,000.

The man who celebrates his 29th birthday in a month, also achieved his aim of breaking into the top 100 in the world, reaching a highest placing of 71st before finishing 88th.