A couple of weeks before the 1992 Houston Open, I was probably as low as I could get confidence-wise. I didn't think I was going to go any further, and then, out of nowhere, I won that week. That kind of got me going.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I didn't do anything spectacular when I won the Open in 2001. I hit the ball good, not great. I putted good, not great, but I think I missed maybe two putts inside eight feet all week.
When I woke up Sunday morning at the Open and stepped outside and felt the wind and rain in my face, I knew I had an excellent chance to win if I just took my time and trusted myself.
It was a tough year for me, '89, losing two Slam finals and losing another five finals. It wasn't until I won the Masters, or what's now called the ATP Finals, that things changed again. Suddenly I won seven tournaments in 1990 and became No. 1.
The first win came very quick, and I didn't know what it meant to win a major championship. I was a teenager, I was very young. I didn't know what I was doing. I just needed some time to get settled in on the tour.
I still look back and think, 'How did I win the Tour, going day to day under that pressure?'
I had very low expectations. Honestly, I think I had 11 rounds of golf the entire year in before this tournament, and I had hit balls maybe four or five times.
With confidence, you have won before you have started.
The first think I did when I found out I was a finalist, was, I don't remember, because it felt like it was an out of body experience.
I won the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters in my late 30s, largely because of my confident driving.
I was very, very shocked about Cooperstown. I thought my chances were fairly good, but I tried to stay low key about it, not too high and not too low. That was the way I played, too.