Terry Brushwood is hoping hypnotherapy can help him win his first Bradford Open tomorrow.

The 39-year-old goes into the district’s premier competition at Northcliffe as one of the form guys following his triumph in the Bingley St Ives Salver last week.

And he revealed his three-shot victory in the Yorkshire Order of Merit event came after hypnosis from his wife Helen seemed to cure his putting problem.

He said: “My putting has not been so good and just led to me carding mediocre scores.

“My wife has been doing a diploma involving hypnotherapy so I have been her guinea pig.

“She just got me thinking positive thoughts about putting and it seemed to pay off.

“Now I think I’ll have to let her work on my whole game!”

New Open champion Darren Clarke saw two different sports pyschologists in the build-up to Sandwich and Brushwood admitted the mental aspect of the game is crucial.

He said: “I think in golf these days a lot of players have near enough the same ability, so you are looking for that bit of an edge where you can and the mental side of the game is huge.”

Brushwood returns to familiar territory on Sunday, having been part of the Northcliffe success story a few years back.

But the Shipley-based former professional – now a member at Bingley St Ives – insists that is not necessarily a benefit.

“There are problems with knowing the course,” he said.

“I’ve gone out in 29 there before and it can feel so easy that you think you can do that every time. When you don’t, you can get frustrated.

“You must stay very patient at Northcliffe and not think you are going to burn it up. It’s easy to start getting ahead of yourself.

“I’ll be playing for par and if anything better comes along then all well and good.”

Brushwood believes defending champion James Firth will be a strong contender again and also picked out two St Ives team-mates in Andy Town and Dane Bairstow, who is bidding for the double after winning the Bradford Amateur Strokeplay title earlier in the month.

Brushwood, along with Town, Bairstow and Darryl Berry, has enjoyed success with St Ives this season, the club having won Division Four and finished runners-up in Division Three of the Yorkshire Team Championship.

And he dedicated his Salver triumph to Bingley, having become the first home member to win it for eight years.

He said: “It was nice to win it for the club. I’ve just joined St Ives and they have been very supportive. We have a good team spirit and we play for each other.”

Brushwood, whose lowest round at Northcliffe is 65, tees off with Shipley’s 2006 Bradford Open winner James Simpson and Baildon professional Sean Wright at 10.20am and 3.20pm.