Dubai: Omega Dubai Desert Classic debutant Pat Perez hopes recent form will allow him to make more cameo appearances on the European Tour this season.

“I haven’t really been in a position in my career to go out of the PGA Tour,” said the 41-year-old American.

“The main focus for me was to keep my PGA Tour card, but once you get inside the World’s Top-50, you can kind of go that route and try to play some more world events and play against different players and kind of see how you really stand up against everybody.

“I was going to try and play maybe five total,” he said of European or Asian excursions this year.

“My main goal will still be the PGA Tour and FedExCup, but I’ve been on the PGA Tour 17 years now and never really had a chance to see the world and play other events. So I’m just going to take this year to do a little more.

“I’m at a different point in my life. I’ll be 42 in March, and I don’t know, life just seems different. Everything off the course, such peace, we have a baby coming in September. So I just have a whole different outlook at 41 than I did at 24.

“At 24 it was let’s see if we can get on Tour, keep our card, and win. Now I’ve won three times (two in the past two years) and I’ve got into the World’s Top-20 (he’s currently World No. 17).

“It just seems that it’s not as important, life is just different. I see more to life than just golf, and before, it was just always golf.

“The travel’s kind of easy, but then the time-change and trying to get used to that, especially for just a week or two, is very difficult,” he said of newfound challenges around travelling.

Regarding Dubai and his chances, he added: “It’s a desert course and I live in Scottsdale (Arizona), so we have all desert courses. The grass is pretty similar. They are small greens, but the layout’s right in front of you.

“You hit it in your spot, hit it on the green. I think the layout is fantastic. It’s cool too, to see all the buildings around and everything.

“It’s a lot bigger city than I thought it was, but it’s been great, the weather is fantastic. I’ve always wanted to come here. It’s been exciting to be here so far and I look forward to a good week.”