Andrew Oldcorn will be striding out over the Wentworth turf this week with more than the usual spring in his step. Senior golf is on the horizon and the 48-year-old Englishman-turned-Scot is looking forward to his rebirth in little more than a year's time.

Wentworth is where he had his greatest golfing moment all of seven years ago, holding off Nick Faldo, Angel Cabrera and Michael Campbell to win the PGA Championship, the flagship event of the European Tour. The magic of the Surrey course at this time of year never fails to set his spine tingling.

"All the players treat it as a special event," he said. "Other than the Open, if they were offered a tournament to win on this tour most would pick this one. It has the kudos and the history that will always make it the No.1 event in Europe. It makes me feel special every time I go there. Whatever happens in the rest of my career, you can never take it away that I've won it."

Oldcorn was talking just before the final round of the Northern Open over the new Spey Valley course at Aviemore, and therein hangs a tale. After his win his game went into sharp decline. He lost his tour card just more than a year ago and now has great uncertainties over his schedule. A hoped for start in last week's Irish Open never materialised and so he dropped down a couple of levels to play on the Tartan Tour, a long fall from those heady days of 2001.

There have been big distractions, such as he and wife, Kirstin, starting a family, assorted injuries and his mother passing away last year after a long battle with Alzheimer's. Oldcorn, however, is more ready to identify personal flaws.

"Within a year of that win I felt pretty flat," he recalled. "I had been on the tour for 20-odd years and I had reached the heights. I had a five-year exemption and I think I just lost my focus on what I was doing. I relaxed and didn't work as hard as I had been doing up to that point.

"Two children came along and that removed some of my focus as well, although, strangely enough, I would say the opposite about my wife. She galvanised me, but I couldn't hack the travelling any more and it slowly crept up on me. It ate away into my game and it was so difficult to get it back."

The prospect of seniors golf is revitalising. He is exempt on the European Seniors Tour in 2010 and also has a "free shot" at making the grade for the lucrative Champions Tour in the US at next year's qualifying school.

"With the intensity of the main tour now and the physical and mental demands of it I don't think I could have played all the way through to 50," he continued. "I knew pretty much a few years ago that I didn't want to do that but I couldn't down tools and not play. I'm looking forward to the seniors tour immensely. I wish it was tomorrow, but I have to bide my time and keep competitive by playing up here or in tour events that don't involve too much travel."

Aware of high standards among the seniors, Oldcorn is working on his game harder than ever and is also doing preventive work with a sports therapist. One thing missing from this regime, however, is the gym.

"I'm never going there," he vowed. "I've tried it and I know it's not for me. I'm not saying it hasn't got merits, but the way I try to keep fit is by playing golf. I'm walking 30-40 miles a week."

Ideally, he would like to drop a stone-and-a-half to 13 stone, but he is aware that might have a detrimental effect. "I've swung the club a certain way for, say, a dozen years and I've never changed my weight," he said. "I've spoken to Craig Stadler and Ian Woosnam about it and when they lost weight they felt their game suffered."

That's always good justification for having another pie, but one real bugbear is the lack of invitations. It is a complaint he has taken up with the European Tour without success and the biggest kick in the teeth was being turned down for a Challenge Tour event in France.

"I feel let down and that's putting it mildly. I was given four invitations last year and guys in my kind of position previously were given at least a dozen," he said. "I've had one invitation this year to the Madeira Islands Open and I'm waiting to find out if I'm in the Wales Open, European Open and Scottish Open."

As a former champion he is in this week's field as of right and knows full well that nothing succeeds like success and this is a golden opportunity to put himself back in the limelight.