Adam Scott was quickly reminded golf will bite those who do not respect it, rebounding out of a slumber to sit well poised at the World Golf Championships event at Trump National Doral.
Fresh off his win last week at the Honda Classic, and a runner up finish in Los Angeles the week before, Scott eagled his opening hole and appeared set to continue his dominance.
But back-to-back bogeys quickly refocused the world No.9's attention as he went about crafting a four-under-68 to be sitting tied fourth, just two off the first round lead.
"I was just cruising a bit," Scott admitted.
"I took it real easy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and didn't really turn the mind on at all. Trying to enjoy what happened last week and save some energy for this week.
"Then I just kind of went on autopilot and hit two good shots up the first and knocked a putt in.
"But once I faced a couple of tougher shots I made a bit of a meal of them and quickly realised that if that's how I'm going to play, I'm probably going to shoot over par today, so I had to sharpen up a bit."
Players often struggle to back up a win with another strong showing.
"Mentally is the hardest thing, trying to take yourself back up to that level of intensity," Scott said.
"Because you don't win every week, you push so hard to finally get one and there's a big crash, in a lot of ways.
"Even though I feel good about everything, I'm sure the last couple weeks has taken a lot out of me.
"I just have to kind of flick that switch and almost erase the last couple of weeks and get back at it and want to win as bad as ever."
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