Richie Ramsay on 'tricky walk' back at Belfry but retiral plan at 40 is shelved

A dejected Richie Ramsay leaves the 18th green after completing his final round in last year's Betfred British Masters at The Belfry. Picture Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Richie Ramsay once toyed with the idea of calling time on his career as a tour player when he turned 40, but, as even he probably suspected would be the case, that’s not happened.

A fortnight after hitting that age milestone, Ramsay remains hungry for success heading into the Betfred British Masters at The Belfry, where he was in with a chance of winning last year until taking an untimely double-bogey 6 at the last.

“I want to play as long as I can,” he told The Scotsman at the Sutton Coldfield venue, where ten Scots are teeing up in an event being hosted by Sir Nick Faldo. “I made some ideas that I could stop at 40. But, as long as I can be competitive, I will be out here. I couldn’t be out here just grinding it every week and not knowing that I could win a tournament.”

At the time, Ramsay described his disappointment here last year as “the biggest kick in the teeth of my career”. Even now, the memory of standing in the middle of the 18th fairway with a one-shot lead only to “duff” his second shot into the water still stings. “I played 18 yesterday and that was a tricky walk, more so for the mind than the body,” he admitted.

The fact that Ramsay managed to quickly shake off that painful experience by winning the Cazoo Classic at Hillside a few weeks later played a huge part in convincing him that 40 was going to be too early to be walking away from the DP World Tour.

“Yeah, because I failed I knew I could learn a lot from it and I think the fact I got the other side as quick as I did was huge,” he said of landing a fourth win on the circuit but first in more than seven years. “Sometimes people can spiral out of control from a mental perspective when something like that happens. But I feel like I had a little bit of karma at Hillside. I feel as though I was owed something from the golfing gods.”

The Edinburgh-based Aberdonian joked that he’s arrived at the Ryder Cup venue “feeling a little bit older” and also “out of shape” when it comes to nights out, as he discovered following a birthday dinner.

He’s looking forward to playing some bucket-list courses in the US as part of his celebrations, but his focus for the moment is firmly on a four-week run that also takes in the Made in Himmerland, Genesis Scottish Open and The Open.

“It’s nice to be back at work as I missed it, even if it was just for a couple of weeks,” he said. “I like that you almost hold yourself back a bit, go and do that stuff that’s cool, but I love the day-to-day stuff and coming to a tournament and having that element of competition.

"These are four big events for us and all on courses that kind of suit me. I’d probably say the one that doesn’t, ironically, is The Renaissance (where he is based). This course and the one in Denmark really suit me. There’s always wind, you need to hit it pretty straight, need good distance control and I’ve got history at both courses.”