Danny Willett has confessed he is a long way away from rediscovering any kind of form that saw him win the Masters last year.

Hampered by back injury, Willett has struggled to string together any run of positive performances, with a best finish of tied fifth in the past 10 months.

Inside the world top 10 as recent as November last year, no wins, only two top 10s and eight withdrawals or missed cuts in nineteen starts has seen the Englishman slip to 43rd in the rankings.

He did make the cut at The Open Championship last week to end a streak of three consecutive withdrawals or missed cuts, but finished 76th of the 77 players to make the cut.

The slight salvation of making the cut hasn’t done much to boost the 29-year-old’s confidence, either; his response was short and sweet when asked how he feels about his current state of golfing affairs.

“Sh*t.

“It’s just frustrating,” he added.

“Every time you feel you are getting somewhere with it you take another two steps back. Before you know it, you feel you are 10 steps further back than you were a few weeks before.”

And unfortunately for the five-time European Tour champion, he doesn’t see it getting better any time soon. Asked how far he has left to go to be back to his best:

“F*cking miles.

“A long way away. It feels a long way away. Golf shots are a long way away. Mental is a long way away. Scoring is a long way away.”