Charl Schwartzel

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Schwartzel feeling the pressure

Defending Masters champion Charl Schwartzel knows that Augusta will be an entirely different prospect this year.

The South African took the golfing world by surprise last April when he birdied his last four holes on Sunday to come from nowhere and win his first major, but he knows that this year all eyes will be on him.

“Probably the biggest challenge this year is there’s obviously going to be more eyes on you, people would want to see whether you can live up to the challenge,” Schwartzel said.

“But that’s something I have to get around in my head not to worry about.  I have to go out there and treat it as a new tournament, just give it my best. As long as I prepare properly, give the golf the attention it needs that week.”

Regarding that preperation, Schwartzel isn’t planning on making any dramatic changes in his approach. The most important aspect he’ll be focusing on is making sure he is ready for Augusta National’s trademark fast and tricky greens.

“If you know the greens well you can actually use them to your benefit more than what should be a disadvantage or that you should be scared of them, but you really need to know them like the back of your hand,” he said.

“I was fortunate. I asked a few guys, some of the best putters in the world, I asked them what they did on the very fast greens, and they gave me a bit of advice. It worked out for me.”

That advice was to find a particularly tricky spot on the putting areas and keep practising.

“Every week that I played, I went and found the fastest spot I could find on the putting green, downhill putts,” Schwartzel said. “The biggest thing you actually learn is to make a small stroke.

“You play week in and week out on fast greens, but not nearly as fast as you get at Augusta. The biggest adjustment is to learn to make a little stroke and be consistent with it. That’s what helped me.”