I played Augusta National about as well as I could have hoped. Here's why

I shot a 74 at Augusta National the day after Rory McIlroy won his second green jacket. That’s not a sentence I expected to write. Augusta National has a way of exposing everything—your swing, your decision-making, your patience.

As a 1 index capable of breaking par but also shooting in the 80s, I didn’t feel like I played perfectly, but I also didn’t feel overwhelmed. In fact, I played about as well as I could have hoped. Here’s what went right.

I handled the nerves before I ever hit a shot The most nervous I felt all day wasn’t on the first tee—it was Friday afternoon when I found out I’d won the media lottery. Those nerves sat with me all weekend, and by the time Monday arrived, they had almost burned themselves out. So when I drove down Magnolia Lane, trying to slow the moment down, and stood on the first tee, I wasn’t fighting the adrenaline as much as I expected.

I made bogey after punching out of the trees, and it didn’t spiral. At Augusta National, that’s everything. One bad swing can turn into three quickly.