NORTH Yorkshire golfer Simon Dyson is hoping patience with the wrist injury that has plagued him for two nightmare years is finally beginning to pay dividend - after enjoying his best European Tour return since 2014.

The York-born Malton & Norton Golf Club star carded a one-under-par total of 287 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic to finish joint 49th overall, following rounds of 70, 70, 72 and 75.

Matching his placing in the BMW South Africa Open in Ekurhuleni in mid-January, it was slightly worse than the 44th-placed finish at the season-opening Australian PGA Championship in December. But while those results earned him prize money of under five thousand euros, this one saw him collect 11,076 euros.

He has not enjoyed such a paycheque since qualifying for the lucrative season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai in 2014, where he collected just under 90,000 euros.

Dyson, 39, a six-time European Tour event winner and formerly in the world's top 50 players, has tumbled down the rankings since needing career-saving wrist surgery in 2015.

But he is hoping to be back on an upward curve, a rise he will seek to continue at the Maybank Championship at the Saujana Golf & County Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which starts on Thursday.

He told europeantour.com: "There are still certain positions that I want to get in with my golf swing that I still can't because it (the wrist) is so tight, so I think it's just a game of patience.

"Hopefully I'll just get it stronger and hopefully one day it'll be back to normal.

"You're working hard and you're putting it in certain positions and subconsciously it just wants to go in a nice position where it doesn't hurt but unfortunately that's not the position I want to get in.

"We'll just keeping plugging away and hopefully keep giving myself chances of shooting scores like that (in Dubai)."

Following the Australian PGA, Dyson missed the cut at the UBS Hong Kong Open and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship but, in between times, picked up 4,875 euros in the SA Open.

He was then 69th at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, collecting 4,442 euros.

He thought some of his play in Dubai last weekend, at the Emirates Golf Club, suggested his form was on the up, coming a week after he also made the cut in Qatar.

He said after the opening round: "Last week in Qatar, on the first day, my wrist was probably as bad as it's been for a while. I just struggled to get the club away and it showed in my score of four-over. Then it felt fine the next day and I shot three-under.

"I honestly think strapping it up hinders it a little bit so I've been trying it strap-free this week and it seems to have worked.

"I was very pleased (with that round). I feel I could maybe drive the ball a little bit better but when I did I put myself in some good positions and took advantage. My short game was really good. There were four or five occasions where I missed greens but I managed to 'up and down' all of them. It was bogey-free so I was really pleased."