Has it really been 4 years since Retief Goosen had won a PGA Tour event? Seems like it couldn't be true, but his win at the Transitions (?) Championship in Tampa this week was his first in quite a while. He has come back in to form recently, with multiple wins on other tours worldwide, and now he seems to be on target as we head to Augusta. My question... where did his game go?? You look at him swing the club, so smooth and effortless, you wonder why any of us try to play the game part-time when even a man like Goosen can lose it for a period of time. He recently turned 40, and has made a commitment to fitness that has apparently paid off. He said he keeps reminding himself that Vijay Singh won more in his 40's than his entire career previous, so he plans to follow suit.

The difference maker on sunday was his putter... the greens at Innisbrook got very baked out and fast, and guys were running it 5 feet past the hole on a regular basis. Add to that list Goosen, who just needed to 2 putt from 20 feet for the win, and then ran his first putt by the hole at least 4 or 5 feet. He managed to sneak in the comebacker, but all of us were thinking Southern Hills 3-putt time when that happened, and I wondered if he was thinking the same thing. In his interviews, he admitted yes, that came to mind. Pretty amazing even a major champion has bad memories jump back at the worst time... I suppose the difference is, he shrugs it off and makes the putt anyway.

Mental toughness seems easy for Goosen, at least keeping his emotions in check does. Or does he actually have emotions? He had a good putt lip out hard at 15 or 16, and he barely blinked. He snuck in the winning putt, and calmly took off his hat to shake hands. Come on, Retief! At least raise one arm? Anything? The next tournament you win, I would like you to please drop to the green, do the worm for about a minute, and then run over to the TV camera and slap it around Happy Gilmore-style, yelling"That's riiiight, baby! Plenty more where that came from!!!" Or not.

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