Watson, Rose, Day Say Masters is All about Preparation

The Masters is widely regarded as one of the hardest tournaments to win in all of golf. However, some of the world’s best agree, it all comes down to the mental game in the end.

Winning a major tournament is part preparation, part mental focus, part fun and part luck. There’s no doubt every player in the field is working on cobbling the parts together to make sure he is as ready as he can be for the Masters.

“Probably about a good six, eight weeks ago it starts creeping into your mind,” Justin Rose said about Masters preparation.

Maybe that’s what makes the Masters deliciously wonderful to win and tragically horrible to lose. So much time has gone into it. The thoughts, the practice, the advance visits.

The U.S. Open, that’s usually a slog through artificially narrowed fairways and impossibly fast, often dead, greens. The British Open, that’s affected by the luck of the weather and the luck of the tee time. The PGA, it’s a bit closer to playing a PGA Tour event, and by then golfers suffer some amount of weariness from the length of the season. But the Masters is the one that you think about for five or six or seven months.

“You sit there and sleep thinking about winning the green jacket and winning the Masters and playing great golf and in front of millions of fans that are watching,” Jason Day said about his golf dreams. “It’s hard to get out of your head sometimes.”

“Here is different,” Bubba Watson said, comparing it to his recent victory at the Dell Match Play. “You got to be mentally prepared. The mental part of it is what drains you around this place. So, you got to be mentally prepared and focused on every shot and committed to what you see and what you want to do.”

Justin Rose still loves Augusta – heartbreak and all

Rose, despite his loss to Sergio Garcia in the playoff last year, still feels the same way he did the first time he came to Augusta National.

"“It starts by just driving up Magnolia Lane and feeling good and having good energy and feeling good about the place. That sort of love affair started my very first Masters in 2003,” Rose noted."

However, Rose had to chase away lingering disappointment left over from last year’s loss to Garcia, and it took him at least a month before he could get beyond it. He also had to revisit Augusta National, walk it and look at it anew before he could start to focus on this week. He arrived early, the Thursday before tournament week.

"“People say you played the Masters 12 times, why do you still go up early for practice rounds? And I’m like why not? It’s Augusta. You get a chance to play the course,” he added. “I always just love being up here, and you always do tend to learn a thing or two.”"

Last week, for instance, he played a practice round and learned a new place to land shots on the 15^th from an Augusta National caddie. Rose said he has always laid up on the 15^th, a little farther back and to the right side.

The caddie told him, “My man would fire me if I laid him up here.”

So, Rose took a look at the spot the caddie liked.

“He was always more way down to the left. There’s a bit more of a flat spot,” Rose explained. “I took notice of that, started to hit a few shots from there, I preferred it.”

Jason Day is still focused on the Masters, even with changes in his game

Jason Day changed out his irons this week because his proximity to the hole this season is not what he wants it to be.

"“I think the stats, the only thing that I need to improve on is hitting it closer and hitting more greens,” he noted. “I think hopefully with this current change that I have with the irons I think that will slowly kind of bring everything in hopefully and give myself a few more opportunities on the greens.”AUGUSTA, GA – APRIL 03: Jason Day of Australia and caddie Rika Batibasaga wait to hit a shot during a practice round prior to the start of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 3, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)"

He made need to do it faster rather than slowly, but his irons have definitely been out of sorts. He had gone from an offset design to an onset last season. He couldn’t get the right trajectory and control with them. If there’s one thing every golfer needs at August it’s control of the golf ball.

Another change is that his coach and former caddie, Colin Swatton, is not on the bag at the Masters for the first time, although they have Swatton’s yardage book. Rika Batibasaga, one of Day’s long-time friends from Australia is sharing caddie duties this season, and he got the nod for the Masters. Mentally, that’s an important change for Day, and it was surprising to hear how he explained it.

"“To a certain degree I think when you have your coach on the bag, you kind of, not worry, but you kind of think, okay, well, he’s going to say something about this shot, so I better not play that shot,” Day admitted. “It takes a little bit of free will to your game to kind of let that‑‑ let things happen.”"

Bubba Watson is back in the groove ahead of the Masters

Two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson has come back from a mystery illness that caused him to shed 20 pounds and look a tad gaunt last year. He was sick enough that he considered retirement. Finally, everything is in order. Miraculously, he’s won two tournaments already in 2018. He looks like he’s regained his pep, and he’s certainly regained his sense of humor. For him, this week is all about maintaining a good energy level.

“That’s the difference in the strategy and that’s what I did different from the two times that I won.”

“I asked a few people, older gentlemen in our golfing lives how to‑‑ what do you need to work on and really recovery, how do you recover, how does your body recover from a stressful day,” he explained, and added that he wasn’t going to say who, but he immediately did. It was Phil Mickelson.

Watson took note. He changed his routine. Instead of playing 18-hole practice rounds, he’s only playing nine holes a day. However, he will play in the par-3 contest with his son as caddie.

"“I played nine holes and I hit some balls and putted,” he explained on Monday. “Over the course of the years it’s just changed that way of trying to just save some energy and mental preparation. That’s the difference in the strategy and that’s what I did different from the two times that I won.”"

When asked to describe the ways that Augusta National tests golfers differently than other majors, Watson said there wasn’t enough time to explain it all, but he provided highlights. The undulations of the greens are unlike most courses. The lies in the fairways are almost never flat. There are different angles and slopes, above and below your feet, side hills, up and down. There’s always something to keep the golfer uncertain.

“Rumor is they cut the grass towards us, so it’s into the grain when you hit, so the quality of iron shots, you got to be pinpoint or you’re going to look pretty bad on the iron shots because it’s hard to get a crisp hit on it,” he noted. “So, yeah, we can sit here all day.”

So, who ends up winning the Masters this year?

But when it comes down to it, all three have put their know-how into a strategy they hope will bring a green jacket their way on Sunday. Certainly, there are so many realistic contenders this year that it’s difficult to see a true pick. Nobody is a lock, and nobody is out of it.

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“Tiger, I’m hoping, everybody, gets immediate attention, and I just kind of sneak through the back nine roars there and somehow pull out a victory,” Watson added. “Talk to all them and not me anymore.”

He’s not alone in his thinking.

“I think everyone’s kind of solely focused on Tiger and what he’s going to do here and seeing if he can get to No. 15,” Day said. “That’s fine with me. I can just kind of focus on what I need to do to try and win this tournament. I think the biggest thing for me is I can’t beat myself.”

Rose knows he can go low enough to get the job done. His score of 14‑under the year that Jordan Spieth won would have won many Masters in the past. It would have won it in 2017 when he and Garcia tied at 9-under par.

But then he said the most remarkable thing.

“The golf course doesn’t recognize what happened last year. There’s not a blade of grass that’s here that was here last year,” Rose explained. So, technically, the entire course is filled with new material that doesn’t remember last year at all. It’s a new beginning. And that’s exactly what he needs.

Next: Masters Power Rankings

All three can talk to themselves and their entourage, practice shots they will need, play a round or two, visit with mental gurus, get stretched by trainers, read and reread putting surfaces, memorize yardage books. But, finally, they have to play it, and that’s it’s no easy feat. The Masters is the first darling on the pin-up calendar, and if we can believe the players, she’s the prettiest one of them all.

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The Masters: Watson, Rose, and Day Say Augusta is All about Preparation

By Kathlene Bissell | Apr 4, 2018