During the early rounds, the 2006 US Open showed signs of promise, with one bad swing or a bit of bad luck resulting in some bad numbers on his scorecard and removal from contention for another Kirkwood Cup.

Those frustrations weren’t there on Sunday when the Victorian was out early and authored a bogey-free six-under 65, the equal best round of the day, to take him to five-under overall and into a share of 18th nine shots back of winner Cam Smith.

“It was better, I played okay,” Ogilvy said after the round. “I holed a couple of good putts for birdie and I holed a couple of good par savers I guess, which I hadn’t done.”

Ogilvy, like much of the field, will now be en route to Melbourne for the Australian Open, with the 45-year-old likely very happy to have finished before two weather delays for the latter half of the field on Sunday.

A member of Victoria Golf Club, co-host of the concurrent men’s and women’s Opens next week, for much of his life, Ogilvy is looking forward to hopefully taking his new found form home and perhaps even winding back the clock and finding himself in the mix for the Stonehaven Cup. Although he knows the reality of competing as a part time player against the full timers.

“I know I can compete and win if I put it altogether, but I’ve been one of the guys who’s played 25 tournaments a year on a big Tour and come back here and I know how that feels, and I don’t feel like that right now,” he said.

That assessment falls into line with a regular refrain from Ogilvy about his own expectations being difficult to manage having at one time being among the top handful of players in the world to now a player who over the last few years who has teed it up competitively just a couple of times annually.

“It’s quite frustrating when you expect to play like I used to play when I played every week, and I just don’t and you make silly little errors that you wouldn’t.

“You put bad swings on it your whole life, but there’s just some things you do when you’re not playing every week that just aren’t what you used to do when you played every week. That’s kind of frustrating.

“I don’t have too high expectations. I’d love to play well and get in the mix. It would be fun to be in contention.”