Paul Broadhurst is some way off applying to join the Seniors' Tour but he will be excused feeling somewhat like a veteran during the Singapore Masters this week.

The Atherstone golfer is pushing 41 which is far from pensionable age but those around him - including Nick Dougherty, the defending champion - are considerably younger but, therefore, less experienced. It is Broadhurst's experience that may prove a telling factor as he chases his first title of the season.

"There are not many playing well over 40 in Europe," he says. "It seems to be the norm in the States that you get to 40 and your career takes off but it doesn't seem to happen over here.

"There are not many guys still out here who were on the Tour when I joined in 1989. I am a dying breed at the moment."

His golf, he believes, has improved since winning his first tournament in a decade at the Portuguese Open nearly a year ago at Estoril. His game has kicked on since then and he feels he is playing some of his best golf for a long time.

"I feel I have played better since winning in Portugal," Broadhurst said. "I have not been outside the top 20."

Broadhurst is ranked 13th on the European Tour and, after his second place at the Qatar Masters in January, has climbed the world rankings to 64th, nine places ahead of Dougherty and only seven behind Swede Niclas Fasth, the top-ranked player at Laguna National this week.

While Broadhurst has demonstrated that a golfer's peak is not necessarily in his 30s he does concede that life on Tour gets tougher as he gets older.

"I have been working with Bob Torrance for about four years and there has been a gradual change of method," he said. "It still looks the same but doesn't feel anything like it used to. I have tightened things up.

"I still have bad days, obviously, but think the swing has developed with age. I can't turn as much as I used to at 40.

"And I work with John Pates on the mind and that has certainly helped me working with him. There has been a gradual improvement and I am getting the results as a combination of those two."

While few of the regular Midlanders have travelled to Singapore, Broadhurst will be joined by Hereford's David Park and Robert Rock, from Armitage.

There is also a noticeable absence of the tour's big guns but Dougherty says it will not detract from his bid to retain his maiden title. The Englishman held off the final-round challenges of Colin Montgomerie and Thomas Bjorn last year. This week, it appears he faces less of a challenge.

But the 23-year-old Nick Faldo protegé will have none of it, saying: "You could argue there are fewer 'top' players in the world here but there is still real strength. The best players from Asia, the likes of Thongchai Jaidee and Zhang Lian-wei are here so it doesn't get better than that from over here.

"From Europe we've still got some top-class players, Niclas Fasth, Paul Broadhurst, who is playing fantastically, and Simon Dyson, who won last week [at the Indonesia Open].

"Tiger Woods might be an exception but the so-called best players don't win all the time. I won last year and I wasn't supposed to. To win, no matter what people say the field is like, means you have to play world-class golf. To win this week I feel like I have to play as well as I did last year, if not better."

The 2005 Singapore Masters, the only title he has claimed on Tour, was a breakthrough in Dougherty's career. The pressure to perform has changed, with the slim-line Liverpudlian being given top billing on his return to Singapore.

He accepts his role as underdog has gone but claims he is happier being grouped among those in contention for the trophy.

"It's very different to last year," he said. "Then I had no pressure on me because Monty or Thomas were supposed to win. I feel like I am a much better player this time."