Former World No 1 Luke Donald believes mental toughness will be the key to victory at this week’s US Masters as Europe’s 28-strong contingent look to end a 14-year drought.
European players enjoyed enormous success at Augusta at the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, recording eight wins between 1988 and 1999 and seven out of nine between Sandy Lyle’s triumph in 1988 and Nick Faldo’s third title in 1996.
However, the last continental player to don the famous Green Jacket is Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999, despite the likes of Donald, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Rory McIlroy all being world number one in the last three years.
“Does it surprise me? Nothing surprises me in golf anymore,” Donald said when asked about the barren run.
“I think since I’ve been a professional, I feel like the fields have gotten a lot stronger, a lot deeper. You’re seeing anyone on a given week has a chance to win.
“This game is a very mental game and it’s almost who are the least fragile players that week that have a chance.
“Everyone has the talent and the ability to win and there’s a bunch of great and good European players right now, Justin (Rose) and Poults (Ian Poulter) and Rory (McIlroy) and Graeme (McDowell), and the list goes on and on.
“But we certainly have as good a chance this year as any other.”
Donald is among the European players to have gone close to victory at Augusta, finishing third on his debut in 2005 and fourth in 2011, and although he missed the cut in his last event in Malaysia, the 35-year-old is taking a patient approach.
“My results haven’t been what I wanted, but (as) someone who had such a great 2011 (winning the money list on both sides of the Atlantic), pretty good 2012, I know the ability is there,” he added.
“It’s just being patient, waiting for my turn to come. It’s frustrating sometimes, but I think when you have that background of good results in the past, that you know that good things are going to happen.
“You just keep working hard and playing through some of those tough times, and it will turn around. Not being world No 1 there are certainly a lot less demands on your time, a lot more going under the radar.
“There is less expectation, probably less expectation for myself, and I think that can only be a good thing. It’s one less thing to think about.”