The 2015 champion, Green kicks off his 2020 campaign at this week’s Vic Open two weeks shy of his 49th birthday, the looming 50th milestone in February 2021 motivation to make sure his game remains competitive until he can join the senior set.

Green and Fowler are part of a stellar field that has assembled at Thirteenth Beach Golf Links on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, the pair rounding out 2019 by playing the final round of the Australian PGA Championship together at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

A seven-time winner on Europe’s Staysure Tour, Fowler claimed the MCB Tour Championship in December six months after his 60th birthday, his dedication to his craft a reminder to Green that there is still plenty of tournament golf ahead of him.

“He’s a master,” Green said.

“If I was a golfing fan he’d be the guy I’d go and watch. The way he works and the way he focuses on his golf is really worth learning a lot from.

“You can see he’s struggling a little bit at times with his body but he’s worked hard his whole life in golf. Really, really hard and he still does it.

“He loves it.”

Given his 20-year career on the European Tour, Green would be almost certainly guaranteed status on the Staysure Tour next year but has his eyes on joining the likes of Rod Pampling, Stephen Leaney and David McKenzie on the more lucrative Champions Tour circuit in the US in 2021.

Either way, Green is approaching the next phase of his career like an excited rookie.

“I don’t see myself working indoors. I’ve just been born to do this,” Green said of his plans post-50.

“Golf’s been my life. I’ve played it for over 30 years now and for a long time it’s been a part of me.

“I’m fortunate to be able to have a bit of a future with senior golf. It’s something to look forward to.”

Tied for 13th at the Australian Open at The Australian in December, Green’s playing opportunities in Europe have been restricted ever since he was bumped from the top-40 on the European Tour career moneylist by Swede Alex Noren at the end of 2016, thus denying him a one-off exemption for the following year.

Noren’s fourth win of the year at the Nedbank Golf Challenge took him past Green by some E16,000 and left the Aussie left-hander with a level of uncertainty he hadn’t experienced in two decades.

“The hard part has been getting through the last couple of years without a tour to play on,” conceded Green, who has played just 25 events in Europe over the past three years.

“It was unfortunate what happened to me in Europe. I got pipped at the post. I thought I had my card and lost it at the end and ended up with nothing.

“I’ve been battling to try and play whatever I can to keep my golf game going and that’s been difficult.

“This year is a bit the same. I’ve got to try and get through somehow so I can play some senior golf at the end of the year and try and get my card on the Champions Tour.

“I had the opportunity to go to Q School Final Stage last year but I’d been the previous two years and not done any good. It just didn’t agree with me at all so I wasn’t going to go and waste my money there again.

“I would rather set my sights on good quality practice through the year and maybe play a couple of local tournaments in Norway on the Nordic League and hang out with Marianne (Skarpnord, his fiancée). I’m happy with that.”

Green and Skarpnord did the unthinkable five years ago when the couple – who had only recently moved to Thirteenth Beach – won their respective Vic Open crowns.

In the past 12 months they have played in mixed gender events in Jordan and Ireland and Green has no doubt there is a growing appetite for more such tournaments around the world.

“People with a bit of imagination and a bit of innovation for golf are grabbing hold of that format because it seems to be popular,” said Green, who defeated fellow leftie Nick Cullen in a playoff in 2015.

“Everyone wants to see the girls play along the same lines as seeing the guys play. The more the merrier.”