They don’t do things by halves here at the swanky Regnum Carya resort. Wolf away at the vast, all-you-can-shove-down-your-thrapple buffet, for instance, and you’ll spend the next few hours feeling like your stomach is incubating Ayers Rock.

“It’s going to be a good week for getting a bit fatter,” said Russell Knox with a disguised belch.

At this time of the golfing season, you can fill all manner of boots. With a purse of $7m on offer at this week’s Turkish Airlines Open, it’s not just the waistline that can expand. “It would be nice to see if we can fill our pockets before Santa Claus comes down the chimney,” added Knox, who will also contest the Tour Championship in Dubai and the World Cup of Golf in Australia in this cash-soaked spell.

Knox, who is making his first appearance in the Antalya showpiece, has arrived in the south west of Turkey looking to bounce back from a largely dispiriting display in the WGC HSBC Champions event in China last week.

The 33-year-old won that particular title in superb fashion back in 2015 with a 20-under aggregate, but over four days in Shanghai on his latest visit he was 15-over and down in the depths of the standings.

There wasn’t much eastern promise on show but Knox is hopeful that some positive morsels can be salvaged from the general debris. “I was pathetic, which was humbling,” conceded Knox, who currently sits in 12th place on the Race to Dubai rankings thanks to a win in Ireland and a second place at the French Open during the summer.

“You never want to play badly, but sometimes you need that. Everything was dreadful, to be honest. Having said that, I feel my game is close. It always is. I still think my best golf is better than it has ever been. Unfortunately, the bad stuff is worse than it has ever been. I’m making enough birdies but, unfortunately, I’m throwing in too many bogeys and others.”

Since that summer surge, Knox has not finished higher than 35th in the eight events he has played but he is hoping more of a focus on percentages rather than perfection can help him finish the year with a flourish.

“I do feel at times I have maybe tried to play a little too perfectly rather than just play the percentages,” added the Inverness exile. “I just need to edit my game plan and be a little more conservative at times and try to limit the mistakes.”

Knox is already looking ahead to the 2019 campaign, when he will defend his Irish Open crown and make his annual golfing pilgrimage to his homeland for the Scottish Open. There could be some additions to the diary too. “There is now more likelihood I could also be playing Wentworth [the BMW PGA] and that also puts the Dunhill Links on my map,” he noted of a scheduling shift that has led to the BMW PGA moving to September next year.

One calendar tweak he’s not happy about, though, is the French Open moving to the autumn. “That’s very surprising and a shame,” he said.