Victorian Geoff Ogilvy is determined not to repeat a key mistake he made last year, which led to his world ranking dropping below the 200 mark.
With his status hovering around 216 Ogilvy managed to arrest the slide with a sudden win and a high finish in a Tour Championship play-off event.
But he says he lost track of his scheduling and with it came frustration and even the thought that he might just walk away well before the end of the 2014 season.
"I’d been struggling for a while – not for lack of effort, but in golf it comes and goes," Ogilvy said.
"I knew my game was getting better but at the US Open at Pinehurst I made some dumb scoring errors on Friday on the back nine, missed the cut and was disillusioned.
"Then two weeks later at the Quicken Loans National, I hit the ball as well as I have in years for 54 holes and missed everything with the putter. I was so over it. I wasn’t in The Open Championship. I was done.
"I might take the rest of the year off. That’s where my head was at."
But he was talked into playing in Nevada, against his impulse – advice he will surely treasure.
He travelled to Reno and was able to avert drastic action when he scored a surprise win in August at the Barracuda Championship. He then hauled himself back on track when he finished second at the Deutsche Bank Championship before eventually qualifying for the season-ending TOUR Championship.
"One of the mistakes I made in early 2014 was I chased it too hard and played too many tournaments," Ogilvy said.
"You should never be in the cream of the season and not want to play anymore.
"It’s also important to show yourself that you remember how to do it. Sometimes you get used to playing average. It’s just a human condition.
The benefit to playing well and winning and contending readjusts your head where it should be at."
Ogilvy says it was those two results which enabled him to plot a less frantic path through the 2015 season.
"The win and getting to the TOUR Championship are both very important because they allowed me to set my schedule again," he said.
"When you’re in your early 20s like Rickie (Fowler) or Jordan (Spieth) or even Rory (McIlroy), you can play 25 times a year and be excited to be on the first tee every week. I used to be that guy.
"The longer you go through it, the harder it gets if you play too much."
Meanwhile. last start tournament winner Jason Day has finished in a tie for fourth at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California.
Day was 17 under the card and five off the lead set by winner Brandt Snedeker.
Matt Jones shared seven while further down the board were Aaron Baddeley (T54) and fellow Victorian Cameron Percy (T57).
Stuart Appleby and Oliver Goss were among those who missed the cut.
By: Robert Grant