Paul McGinley has noted a profound change in Sergio Garcia which has finally helped the Spanish golfer to land the first major of a long career.
The 37 year old beat Justin Rose in a playoff to join compatriots, Jose Maria Olazabal and the late Seve Ballasteros in claiming the winner's green jacket at the Masters.
Garcia has come close to majors on numerous occasions and has been a regular in the world golf rankings Top 10.
But did attitude and emotions hold him back prior to this maiden triumph?
Speaking to Off The Ball, McGinley said: "That's what's been his Achilles heel. He didn't come on tour with that attitude."
McGinley added that "he developed that attitude" as shots at glory came and went, "particularly with the very painful defeat - particularly the two to Padraig [Harrington] where he could have won. That really hurt and as a result he became a bit resentful. He became resentful of Padraig, he became resentful of the fact that he hadn't won a major and it hurt him, it hurt his career and his golf.
"And the whole analysis now is that there definitely is a change in Sergio."
Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose and Paul Mcginley in 2012 ©INPHO/Getty Images
2014 Europe Ryder Cup captain McGinley also discussed the effect on Garcia's emotions after receiving criticism from Nick Faldo at that tournament three years ago.
"He's a very emotional person and he needs to be happy. When he's happy, he plays at his best," said the Dubliner.
"The only time I got deep with him was at the Ryder Cup. We had some issues at the Ryder Cup, I remember, when Nick Faldo criticised his play during commentary and that really hit him hard as well, because again the emotion comes back. He was very distraught that an ex-captain would say that about him.
"I didn't play him on the Saturday morning and I had a conversation with him. We went and we had breakfast and that was pretty deep between the two of us and we got pretty deep on it.
"[What Faldo said] hit him really, really hard because he's always prided himself on being a great team player and being a very important part of the team and so I made the decision and we had a very strong conversation and I assured him that I wanted him to play the afternoon and who did he want to play with. Obviously he wanted to play with Rory again so I went out onto the golf course and spoke with Rory. It was the only time I spoke to the players during play but I needed to speak to Rory and I said, 'look, are you OK going out there again with Sergio in the afternoon?' and Rory was great, went out and won the game and Sergio went on to win singles as well."
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