Fighting mental demons, Stuart Appleby has revealed he virtually had to start all over again to revive his flagging golf career.
Appleby briefly led the Australian Open on Saturday before settling for a share of sixth spot, four shots off the pace after a third-round two-under-par 70 at the windswept Lakes layout in Sydney.
“I feel like I’m coming back,” he said. “My game is definitely on the uptake.
“Mentally I’ve really struggled the past year or more, nearly two years, to I guess believe in myself, believe in all the great things that I’ve done.
“And if you struggle with your self-belief, you’re pretty much going to struggle with your scorecard.
“So I’ve been working very hard on that and that’s a progress in the making.”
A nine-time winner in America, Appleby had to use a one-off career exemption to retain full playing rights on the US Tour in 2013 after failing to finish among the top 125 money earners this year.
Although his slide from the world’s top 20 coincided with a debilitating back injury that Appleby felt cruelled his 2011 season, the 41-year-old candidly admits his decline was largely his own undertaking.
“We create our own videos in our minds and some of them are pretty ordinary movies. But we tend to keep watching them,” he said.
“You paint an ordinary picture at times and if you paint it enough and start seeing it, you start to be it.”
All Appleby truly knows is he how much he loves the game and, consequently, the 2001 Open champion resolved earlier this year to start all over.
“It’s the old story, you never forget how to ride a bike,” he said.
“Well, I’m on the seat and I’ve got my foot in the pedals; I’m just trying to remember which gears to get into.”
The father of four said losing up to four kilograms this year had helped.
“I wasn’t planning on it. I was trying to get my energy levels up,” he said.
“If I can be the player I want to be physically and emotionally, I’ve got 10 years so I’m not going to hang around and expect the last 10 years to just turn up.
“I’m going to go out and create something.”
Appleby did, though, confess to on occasions contemplating the alternative.
“At the darkest, the worst times, you’re shaking your head saying `I don’t know if I want to do this any more’,” he said.
“That sort of popped into my head more than once or twice, but luckily that didn’t last for long.”