After turning his back on the European Tour last October changes to Tour membership has lured popular Dane Anders Hansen back onto the competition fairways.

Hansen, 45 ended his career last October in sharing 22nd place in the Portugal Masters.

We all shook hands with Hansen wishing him well in a new business challenge.

But after the European Tour reduced the number of events from 13 to five a Tour member must contest each year to retain his card, Hansen had a change of heart.

So instead of playing in monthly medals at his beloved Scandinavian Golf Club, and located just outside of Stockholm, Hansen returned to the European Tour to tee-up in this week’s and a year after finishing T40th in Munich.

Anders Hanson lifts the first of two BMW PGA Championship trophies at Tour HQ.

And the triple Tour winning Hansen, who has earned in excess of Euro 12m in his career, immediately showed he’s lost none of his competitive edge posting rounds of 70 and 68 to be sharing 10th place heading into the weekend rounds of the Euro 2m event being played on the Gut Larcenhof course just south of Dusseldorf.

“It’s not been too bad for a retired man,” said Hansen smiling.

“But then I need to play five events to keep my status on the Tour and it means only having to play five events so just in case I wake up in December and thinking I want to play in 2017, it means I will still have status,

“So with next week’s French Open counting for two events it means I will then only have to play two more.

“I love playing golf and miss you guys but then I have never liked the travelling.”

Last October – European Tour Chairman David Williams presents Anders Hansen with a farewell gift after playing 419 Race to Dubai events. (Photo – www.europeantour.com)

Hansen capped his career winning first in 2002 and then 2007 the biggest event on the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship and gained entry into this week’s BMW International Open via Category 12 in being among the top-40 on the Tour’s all-time money list.

And it’s a big change from playing golf at The Scandinavian Golf Club.

“I have been having games at home with my friends and enjoying playing the monthly medals but then I did practice a lot harder last week knowing I would be playing this week,” he said.

“And the good thing is that I have been doing alright in the monthly medals and either I shoot a really good score or then I go out and shoot 80, and I just don’t shoot anywhere in between.

“So I have to admit my scoring these two days has come as a bit of a surprise as I didn’t know where my game was, and I have just gone out there and try to hit as many good shots as I could.

“But then I am pretty happy where my life is and I don’t want to come back and play full-time, so the new Tour rule about only having to play five a season suits me fine.

“So if I don’t go out and play golf and put in some practice I will just find myself sitting on the couch back home and getting fat, and just like you guys (pointing and smiling).

“And now after two rounds I find the competitive fire is still inside me and it will be fun to stir it a little bit, so we will see.

“But then the guys I am playing with are in so much better shape and since Portugal last year, I haven’t played golf four days in a row as the most I would have played is three days in a week, and that’s a lot for me.

“This is now a lot of golf and I am also playing next week but then it is not going to make that much of a change in my life and it’s just fun to have made the cut here in Germany.”