It’s all about getting into the mindset of being at Augusta and two of my local clubs have helped me do that. As you know, the greens at Augusta are like lightning. You have to experience them during Masters week to have any idea how fast. The Bears Club, and another course down the road, MacArthur, have quickened up their greens and made them lightning fast, which is great preparation for me. I'm also going to play Seminole on Saturday, a famous Florida course, on which Ben Hogan warmed up before he played in the Masters.
 
At the beginning of the year I decided I was going to take two weeks off before Augusta so I could get a good amount of practice in. I'm continuing to work hard on my fundamentals in my full swing. Working on getting the club steeper and more in line at the top and making sure the club is coming down on the same path it's going up. I've been doing a lot of short game creating shots that I think I'll need for Augusta, concentrating on lots and lots of speed work on the greens.

I’m not really doing anything much different. That’s me. This will be my fourth time at Augusta and I'm learning about the course more and more, building up my knowledge of what kind of shots I need to work on to be successful, but ultimately good shots and a good short game will see me play well at Augusta.
 
As usual there have been subtle little changes made to the course, I’ve checked them out already and, this time, they are pretty minor. I think they’ve even made the course slightly shorter which is a novelty for Augusta. They have extended the first tee to allow for some up-tees in case the shot's into the wind. They’ve also softened the green on number nine. Too late. That would have helped me last year when I made a seven!
 
Against popular opinion, I've always felt quite comfortable at Augusta, and my two top tens in three attempts show that. Augusta rewards great iron play, making sure you leave yourself in the right spots for good birdie opportunities.   I’ll have Diane with me. My family will be home in England watching. I will also have my mother in law and sister in law with me, so we‘ll be quite a little gathering. My coach Pat will be there with me for the first half of the week.
 
 The second and third places I’ve had so far this season certainly built up my confidence and I’m raring to go. Any time you have good finishes it gives you a lot of confidence. It's been a good start to the year, but I still feel there's room for improvement. This year is all about getting better every week, and I hope to do that next week.
 
My stats on the whole have been quite a bit better this year, which obviously contributed to my good results in LA and at the Honda. Some of the swing changes I've been doing, the longer the club is, the harder they are to do. Hence some of my inaccuracies with the driver. I'm still very happy with the MP600 though and just before LA changed the shaft in it to a Fujikura Rombax, which has helped bring the flight down a little bit. The driver still feels very solid. I just need to swing it a little bit better.
 
I’ve edged up a place on the world rankings from last year to 16th. I don't know if I really have a number in mind. I want to go out every week and improve. I want to win a couple of tournaments this year including, hopefully, a major and if I do that, top five is definitely attainable. 
 
Then everything falls into place. One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to make the Ryder Cup team. I'm not in the team right now but I'm very close. I know if I keep playing the way I'm playing it will take care of itself. Obviously playing well in the majors is a great way to jump up the ranking. 
 
We are still house hunting. Since being in Florida this winter, I've just been keeping an eye on stuff that is coming onto the market. I'm sure when we get back to Chicago in a couple of weeks, we will start looking into it more.  I’ve had a little bit of leisure time. I auctioned off one of my paintings for a charity on the PGA Tour some years ago and I just recently did another painting for the golf channel which you'll get to see some time later this year.

For the moment, I’m hoping to show some artistry among the azaleas and rhododendrons next week, especially around Amen Corner.