Rory McIlroy, the Irish boy wonder who took the European Tour by storm when he turned professional late last year, is coming to terms with the fact that getting to the top is likely to be a marathon and not a sprint.
Third at St Andrews in only his second start and then fourth in Madrid a week later, but seven months on and the 19-year-old is down at 116th on the Order of Merit, 35th in the Ryder Cup standings - one place ahead of Colin Montgomerie - and still searching for his first top-10 finish of the year.
Ahead of this week's Irish Open at Adare Manor near Limerick, McIlroy said: "I've tried to pace myself a bit this year and have my schedule so I was fresh coming into this stretch of events."
He added: "It's just a learning process, getting used to travelling to the Far East. I've never been to a place as hot or sweaty as Malaysia before, so it's a whole new experience for me.
"I think my progress has been okay. It hasn't been anything too spectacular but you really don't know what to expect.
"It's difficult to win on tour and my expectation for the year is to try to finish in the top 60 of the Order of Merit.
"The season is really only starting now with all of the big events coming up and hopefully I can challenge in a couple of them.
"After Dubai in February I took a few weeks off and when I came back and missed a couple of cuts I sort of realised that you can't really get complacent.
"You just have to keep working hard because all of the guys are working hard out here to try and beat you.
"One lesson I've learned is that you like expect that there's going to be a few hiccups along the way and learn how to deal with things."