By John Tully-Jackson
Andrew Johnston is the sort of golfer you’d love to spend time with off the course and it’s a big reason why the cult-hero struggled to find the right work/life balance in the past year. Now he’s zeroed his focus on golf, “Beef” is again showing that nice guys don’t always have to finish down the leaderboard.

The 28-year-old Londoner goes into the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship just three shots off the lead and with a serious shot at a second European Tour title.

It’s a mightily positive start to his reset season. Johnston won the Real Club Valderrama Open de España and finished eighth at The Open Championship in a breakout 2016 but has toiled since.

He failed to record a single top-10 in Europe in 2017, a season in which his time was split between both the European and PGA Tours. It saw him tumble to No.186 in the world rankings, something he hopes to rectify this year with a new approach.

“I’m a social person. If you go out with friends or you get invited to something, I’ll have a drink, please, but I probably had a few too many to be honest and it reflected in my golf. I was disappointed looking back at it. I want to turn that around and have a good season.

“Last year was crazy and like getting distracted and things like that, and you don’t know it’s happened until you’ve finished the season, you’re off doing things and you’re burning the candle at both ends.

“When I got back from last season, sort of had time to reflect on it, I sort of said to myself, you know, you’ve got to keep quiet and keep disciplined and get on with your work. I came out here a week early to Dubai and drove down. It’s been good prep.”

The Englishman made a solid start in Abu Dhabi with a pair of 68s and a single bogey 66 on Saturday. If he can continue his form on The National Sunday, he will comfortably beat his best European Tour result of 2017, T-21 finish at the BMW PGA Championship.

“Got to drive the ball well. I think if you drive it well, you give yourself a lot of wedges, 9-irons in and you can score. I think you’ve got to put it on the fairway, and I did that the front nine today and I didn’t drive it as well on the back. That’s why I didn’t carry on the scoring today. That is the key.”

Beef will undoubtedly have strong support from the galleries Sunday. The affable Englishman will also go into the final round well-rested.

“Just chill out, man,” was Johnston’s plan for Saturday night. “Probably watch Netflix for a bit, something like that and get some room service and relax.”