Jeff Smith is "feeling confident" as he resumes his challenge on the PDC ProTour at the PDC Summer Series from July 8-12.
Former North American Championship winner Smith will be amongst the 128-player field for the PDC's first ranked events since March as the Summer Series begins on Wednesday in Milton Keynes.
Smith will travel from Canada to the UK to compete in the five events, and is hoping to use the tournaments as a springboard for his year following his run to the Players Championship One final only weeks after securing his PDC Tour Card at Qualifying School.
"I'm feeling confident about coming back over," said Smith, speaking to Darts World. "I was off to a flier straight off the bat, made the final in the first event I played.
"Money was coming in on the rankings, everything was looking good. I should have been boarding a plane to Germany [for a European Tour event] and instead I was boarding one to come home!
"Since then I’ve been practising every day and playing online - most of the players have been playing webcam darts in different scenarios for a few months now but I'm looking forward to getting back to face-to-face competition for sure."
Smith has also used the enforced break to return to work painting cars in an auto-body shop - although having lost his own business last year to a devastating fire, he has been working for a friend's company.
"You've just got to make the best out of a bad situation," Smith added. "Maybe it worked out for me in the end. It gave me that kick to get back into the darts again.
"My shop went up and that was back in August. So instead I put some serious hours on the board in the view to going back to Q School. The proof is in the pudding that you put the effort in and the rewards are there.
"I had full intentions of re-building it in the spring but I ended up getting my PDC Tour Card and I wanted to see how that worked out before I committed to anything back home.
"I'm now working with a friend of mine in his body shop - he's in my darts team actually. He had a body man that didn't turn up and was looking for some extra help. We had a conversation about working there and playing darts and they've been phenomenal.
"I'm back home in Canada working 40 hours a week in the body shop for Hatfields Auto Glass and Auto Body in Saint John, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back playing again."
The PDC Summer Series will be broadcast live on PDCTV all five days, with each day's play commencing at 1200 BST.