WHERE it all started flashed back for York-born Simon Dyson as he pondered what could be the defining month of an already momentous year.

Dyson is half-way through his 11th year as a professional golfer, a decade and more in which he has combed all four corners of the globe as well as advancing into the elite of the game, where he is presently ranked number 73 in the world.

But in a welcome respite from the pressured world of the competitive circuit the fairways flier returned to his North Yorkshire roots to uphold a long-standing engagement.

Rather than continuing his quest for European Tour titles and precious Ryder Cup points plunder, the 32-year-old opted to honour a commitment to play in a special exhibition match as part of the centenary celebrations of Malton & Norton Golf Club.

It was quite a leap to see him tee off at Malton’s scenic par-five first hole knowing that his previous competitive outing was in the US Open at the lauded Pebble Beach course.

Some 23 years earlier a young Dyson undertook his first steps into the world of irons and woods when he toted a bag, which almost towered above him, to the Welham Park-based club.

Thus began his chosen sporting path which has since brought him no fewer than four championships hewn out of the highly-competitive European Tour, an Order of Merit triumph from the Asian Tour in his rookie year as a pro, representative honours in The Seve Trophy and Royal Trophy team competitions, plus the respect of his peers.

There are also the trappings of riches from a lucrative circuit in which European golf has never been poised at a more powerful peak.

But for all that Dyson has never forgotten just where he got his grounding in the game.

And that was why whatever the demands of his hectic schedule and his current competitive stock, he was always going to play in the centenary match.

“This was my home club from the start and it always will be,” he told The Press.

“Everyone has always made me feel really welcome, so it’s nice to come back. I enjoy coming back and seeing so many friendly faces.

“There was never a question of me not coming to play in this match, because the club helped me so much in getting started.”

For close on a decade he spent his formative years at Malton & Norton from where he won numerous area and county titles, going on to earn his international spurs in the Walker Cup before turning professional in the year 2000.

Dyson has many fond recollections of his days at the Malton course, but his abiding memory is the encouragement he and other juniors got from the late Eric Brown, a mainstay of the club.

“He would bring us youngsters down here in his car and he was just so good for us,” recalled Dyson.

“He’d be in his 60s then but he’d go out there and play 36 holes in the day and just help us out.

“It’s sad because he has passed away now, but the help he gave us as youngsters is probably the best memory of Malton & Norton for me.”

It’s a given that wherever Dyson is plying his tee-off trade in the world he will always carry a part of Malton & Norton GC with him.