DANIEL Brooks believes he has done enough to secure his playing rights on the European Tour for another season.

The 28-year-old professional has been sweating over the past few weeks as he looked to keep his place among golf’s elite.

But he held his nerve at last weekend’s British Masters to finish 25th overall and, crucially, pick up a cheque for 39, 487 euros which pushed Brooks up to 101st in the Race to Dubai rankings.

Only the top 110 players in the rankings get their tour card for next year and heading into the tournament, Brooks was in 110th place and vulnerable should those below him have a good weekend.

But he held his nerve and believes he now has enough of a buffer in the rankings to keep his tour card.

“I would say I’m 90 per cent safe,” said Brooks, from Basildon. “You are never quite sure, but I think that should be enough.

“It is in the back of your mind, even if you try not to let it affect you. When you go out to play, you try not to think about it, you want to go out there and do the best you can, but the most important thing is keeping your card.”

Brooks did not have to stress about his playing privileges going into the final few events of the calendar last year.

Following a strong start to the season, he won the Madeira Open in the spring, something which automatically gave him a tour card for the following year, regardless of where he finished in the rankings.

This year, it has been the polar opposite. He had a poor start to 2015 and failed to make a cut for five months between February and July.

But a fantastic seventh-placed finish at the Scottish Open fired him back up the rankings and crucially helped his confidence return.

“The first half of my season was awful,” said Brooks, a former pupil at Woodlands School. “But ever since the summer really, everything has clicked again and things have gone fairly well.

“I was so bad for so long. I just felt it slowly getting better bit by bit. A lot of it is confidence. Going out there and playing and not thinking about the result.”

Since his finish high up the rankings at the Scottish Open, he has played the full weekend at a number of top events and added to his points tally, but still found himself needing results until the end of the year to get his tour card renewed.

“You do think about it,” Brooks admitted.

“And maybe you are thinking more about that and just trying to keep yourself in contention, rather than going all out to win, for example.

“So it was nice to hopefully have got it done at the British Masters still with a few tournaments still to play.”

Brooks is back in action at the Portugal Masters today, teeing off at 9.10am.