Prior to his return to the European Tour for this week’s Betfred British Masters at The Belfry in England, Ormsby reflected on the scars inflicted from his early years on tour and why the likes of countryman Scott Hend and some of the biggest names in world sport have convinced him that his most productive years on tour are still to come.

A winner of the Hong Kong Open for a second time in January last year, Ormsby joined the rest of the golf world on an enforced layoff after finishing tied for 10th at the Bandar Malaysian Open in March and celebrated his 40th birthday three weeks later in lockdown back home in Adelaide.

He waited until late August before returning to the European Tour and as he prepares to begin a nine-week stretch of tournaments to resume his 2021 campaign Ormsby is 60th in the Race to Dubai standings and ranked 180th in the world.

It’s a far cry from the 23-year-old who first earned his European Tour card at Qualifying School at the end of 2003 and spent much of the first decade of his career fighting to stay there, those scars helping to develop a complete player both physically and mentally.

“Age is just a number,” Ormsby said prior to leaving Australia last Saturday.

“It’s easy to say that as a cliché but I really feel as though if I can keep my body in good nick I feel like my mechanics are still getting better, I’m still unlocking a lot of good stuff in all of that.

“I landed on tour so quick and so early in my career and I did all my learning out there. With all that learning comes a lot of hard hits, bouts to tour school and the like. You’ve got to learn how to win and how to take the hits of losing golf tournaments out there.

“That period in my 20s and early 30s, I got beaten around quite a bit but I still managed to keep myself on those main tours. That makes you tougher but you tend to carry a lot more baggage.

“I’m just doing it in a better way now. I’m happy living here in Australia and commuting back and forth – even though the pandemic made that a bit tricky.

“I’ve got a good team of people around me, I know myself and my tendencies a lot better than I ever have and I’m still keen to work hard.

“I love competing and I love trying to get the most out of myself.

“As long as I can keep fast enough and injury free I feel like I’ll be fine for another four, five, six years, easily.”

Ormsby’s breakthrough win at the 2017 Hong Kong Open allowed him to shed the King Kong-sized gorilla that had taken up residence on his back.

His second Hong Kong Open triumph shaped as the start of another exceptional season only for COVID-19 to bring that momentum to a grinding halt.

Despite effectively missing a year in the prime of his career, Ormsby can point to the likes of Tom Brady and LeBron James as athletes defying whatever age barriers may have existed previously, including his globe-trotting mate from Queensland.

“I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past 18 months with ‘Hendy’ and Hendy’s still hungry,” said Ormsby, 47-year-old Hend the oldest player to make the cut as he finished tied for eighth at the Tenerife Open two weeks ago.

“He’s one of the fiercest competitors that you’ll get. We all know he’s a pretty powerful guy and he’s still athletic for his age… I can’t see him stopping. He just loves playing golf tournaments and he’s a great front-runner. It’s not often that you don’t see him go forwards on the weekends when he’s on that first page of the leaderboard.

“Turning 40 was a little milestone but it is what you make of it. It’s just another year and if you’re stronger and you’re faster and your mechanics are better and the stats are telling you that and the results are telling you that, why believe anything else?

“There are a lot of people in other sports still doing things at an older age or in the latter parts of their career and my career was a bit upside down.

“I did a lot of learning early on so I feel like I’m more comfortable than I ever have been out there.

“I’m looking forward to capitalising on that in the next phase of my career.”