DAVID Howell believes he is “due a good week” on the European Tour, as he starts his Volvo China Open campaign in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Howell, who has not registered a top-10 finish in 2014, goes into the event at Genzon off the back of a failure to make the cut in Malaysia last time out and the Broome Manor pro is keen to make an impact this weekend.

Having been disqualified from the same tournament after the second round last year, the former Ryder Cup star has added incentive to put in a good showing in the Orient.

He told the Advertiser: “I got disqualified from this event last year, which is a bit of a blow. Maybe I’m due a good week, hopefully.

“I called a penalty on myself. A ball moved as I was in the motion of playing a chip. We all agreed that it wasn’t a penalty, wrongly so. Although I owned up that the ball moved we got the decision wrong, so I signed for a wrong score and it was disqualification.

“I guess you don’t really see it as making amends in year to year in the same tournament.

“Maybe in a major championship but in these tournaments they tend to blend into one in some ways. I missed the cut last week and it’s about time I had a decent finish this year.

“That’s what’s on the agenda, basically.

“I’m looking to get my first really good result of the year under my belt.”

Howell believes Genzon’s modern course offers the opportunity for the field to shoot plenty of sub-par rounds over the coming days.

He said: “It’s a decent course.

“There are plenty of good birdie chances out there but some strong holes as well.

“It’s in good condition; the weather forecast seems to be okay so I think you’ll see some decent scores around the course.

“The greens are in really good shape and they’re not quick so that could give everyone the chance to score pretty well, I would think, although it’s a new course and sometimes it’s hard to tell what the scoring will be.

“My guess is it will be quite a low-scoring week.”

Howell tees off at 7.05 am local time (11.05pm, Wednesday GMT) alongside Lianwei Zhang and Shane Lowry.