Dubai: Three years ago James Allan attended the Omega Dubai Desert Classic as a spectator. But this year he’s on the other side of the ropes and finds himself three strokes off the lead after carding a first round of 69.

The 21-year-old Englishman came to Dubai aged 18 to watch the action at Emirates Golf Club and saw an advert for the Mena Golf Tour, a regional development series.

Allan signed up and the chairman of his local golf course in Chelmsford, Essex, offered him the use of his holiday home in Ras Al Khaimah.

The rest is history. He based himself in the UAE and won the Mena Tour’s amateur division in 2014 with four top 20 finishes in nine events. This qualified him for an invite to the European Tour’s 2015 Desert Classic where he missed the cut after finishing six over par, tied for 123rd, with rounds of 78 and 72.

“Last year’s experience helped massively with my amateur golf,” he said. “I dealt with all the pressure and expectation from here and found it a lot easier to cope, and that has kind of shown in my results.”

Last season he reclaimed his Mena Tour amateur title with seven top 20 finishes in 10 events, including a lost play-off to finish second in the Abu Dhabi Open. It meant he re-qualified for a second stab at making the cut at this year’s Desert Classic.

“I just missed out on winning in Abu Dhabi but I learnt a lot from that,” he added. “Now every Mena event I play in I’m not just looking at winning the amateur division, I want to try and win it outright as well. That has become my goal and it was a big boost to put myself in a position to win. It didn’t necessarily happen, but I still had the belief that I could do it.”

Fast forward to Thursday, where he carded two birdies on his front nine and three on his return before bogies on holes 14 and 18, and he’s now well placed to make the cut at the Desert Classic.

If he follows up his first round 69 with another good round on Friday, the youngster will become only the eighth amateur to make the cut in this tournament’s 27-year history.

The last amateur to make the cut at this event was England’s Tom Lewis in 2011, and the best round by an amateur at this event is a 68 carded by both Spain’s Sergio Garcia in his first round in 1999 and Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey in his second round in 2002.

Hoey holds the record best score for an amateur in this event from 2002 with five under par finishing tied for 12th in the leaderboard.

Asked if he was now set to turn professional, Allan replied: “Of course, I’m excited because it proves to me that my golf is capable of competing a little bit with [the professionals]. But at the moment I’m not rushing into anything. I’ll just focus on the next couple of days, try and keep playing as well as I can and see where it goes from there.”

Another amateur everyone has got their eye on is 22-year-old American Bryson DeChambeau who shot a 64 to lead on the opening round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship two weeks ago.

DeChambeau shot 70 on his first round in the Desert Classic on Thursday with four birdies and a double bogey on his front nine and two birdies and two bogies on his return. He’s now four strokes off the lead at two under par.