Defending champion Jason Day hopes fierce head-to-head combat at this week's World Golf Championship-Match Play in Austin, Texas is the tonic he needs to fire up for the Masters.
The 29-year-old Australian has started the 2017 US PGA Tour season behind the eight ball after spending the last three months of 2016 on the sidelines nursing a lower back injury.
Day has this year lost the world No.1 ranking he held for 47 consecutive weeks to Dustin Johnson, due to a series of lacklustre results,with his best finish a tie for fifth at Pebble Beach in February.
But with only one player progressing from each group of four to Saturday's round of 16 at Austin Country Club, world No.3 Day hopes the tournament's cut-throat format will sharpen his game ahead of the Masters starting April 6.
"I think it will get (me) prepared and ready to get back into the competitive juices again like you're in contention; it feels like it's a Sunday (final round) every single day and that helps going into Augusta," said Day.
Day, the 2014 and 2016 WGC-Match Play winner, believes his sub-standard results on Tour of late are somewhat irrelevant given his stellar record in golf's head-to-head format.
"I think I thrive when I have to hit the shots at the right time," Day said.
"You're playing against one guy; you're not worrying about anyone else and can't mentally switch off in situations like match play.
"If I do miss fairways, I'm going to frustrate them with my short game. If I hit it to ten feet, I'm going to hole the putt."
Unfortunately for the Australian tilt at Austin, Day drew compatriot Marc Leishman, who he will battle on Friday, as well as England's Lee Westwood and American Pat Perez.
First up for Day in Wednesday's match is in-form American Perez, who has one win and three top 10s on Tour this season.
The 41-year-old Perez believes flying under the radar will play to his advantage.
Jason is going to be tough; he's won this thing twice and he's been a top player for a long time," Perez said.
"Nobody is expecting me to win so I don't have anything to lose."
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