DAVID CARTER, the Chesterfield golfer who had emergency brain surgery on the eve of the Dubai Desert Classic three weeks ago, returned home yesterday and immediately started hitting golf balls.

Carter (23), 33rd on last year's European Tour Order of Merit, was discharged from Dubai's Rashid Hospital on Saturday. He flew to Britain with his parents, who had travelled to the Middle East after hearing of his collapse.

The operation removed fluid from the golfer's brain. He was found unconscious by other players in his hotel room and his father, Bryan, was told he could have died if neurosurgeons had not reached him when they did.

Carter told how a bang on his head coming down a water slide in South Africa's Sun City two weeks earlier had been followed by headaches and sickness. Subsequent tests, however, have shown he had a virus and infection. His father said: "Whether the Sun City incident triggered it off we don't know but the doctors are very happy with his recovery.

"David will be taking it easy for a while but he went to hit two or three dozen balls this afternoon and hit them quite well."

Carter, runner up in last year's Cannes Open, hopes to make that event in a month's time his return to the European Tour.