Admit it. When Sergio Garcia’s drive wound up in a bush to the left of the 13th fairway at Augusta National, you thought he was finished. And you thought this, not only because of the low probability of any player recovering and beating Justin Rose, given the Englishman’s position and pedigree at that point in the round, but because the player attempting to do so was Sergio Garcia.

You know, the Sergio Garcia who simply doesn’t win majors. The guy whose ball famously wouldn’t fall in the hole at the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie. The guy who said he wasn’t good enough to win golf’s most significant tournaments and instead was playing for second or third. The guy who never minced words about the fact that, let’s just say, Augusta National didn’t suit his game. Hell, the guy who, at 19, looked like he was poised to be the next Tiger Woods, but who, entering Sunday, was 0 for 74 in major championships.

You’ve seen the rest of what happened at Augusta National Sunday several times at this point, so there’s no need to rehash the play-by-play here. Garcia battled back from back-nine adversity to tie Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose. He made a miraculous par after having to take a drop at the aforementioned 13th hole. And after narrowly missing his birdie effort at the 18th hole in regulation, he played that hole to perfection on the first hole of the playoff, rolling in his birdie putt amid a double-clenched-fist overflowing of emotion.

How did this happen? Of course, we were presented with narrative overload about Sunday being the 60th birthday of Sergio’s hero and countryman, Seve Ballesteros. And perhaps the legend of Seve is one of fearlessness and self-belief. Certainly, Sergio was thinking these things Sunday. But what else?

Well, far from being a bundle of nerves, Garcia, who has seen a thing or two, was comfortable.

“I don’t want to brag about it or anything, but from the drive this morning here to the course, I felt very calm,” Garcia said after the round. “I felt very, you know, very at ease, more than yesterday. Even though yesterday I played well, I was a little bit more nervous. It was tough to control my emotions sometimes. But today, I felt comfortable all day.”

OK. Fine, but you’d expect him to be comfortable knowing that he’d probably shoot 74 and finish tied for 10th as he has so many times in the past. Surely, this is what most expected from Garcia. While he’s been physically capable of winning a major championship for 20 years, the Spaniard faced obvious mental hurdles.

How did he clear them? Well, while it’s a ready-made narrative: “Sergio finds love and a happy home life and majors follow.” There’s clearly something to it. Not only is Garcia eminently content, it’s clear fiancé Angela Akins is helping him to be not just a better man, but a better player; he’s in a better headspace to succeed as a high-level professional golfer.

If you were watching the telecast, you saw Akins step inside the ropes as Sergio headed off to the first hole of the playoff to offer encouragement as Sergio walked by looking a bit dejected after missing a five-footer to win. Akins is also reportedly relentlessly positive and competitive, traits she likely learned from her father Marty, a standout quarterback at the University of Texas.

Indeed, here’s what Garcia had to say after the win.

“It definitely helps, there’s no doubt about the background that the whole family has. Marty is a very, very positive, very, you know, outspoken and very, very confident kind of guy, and it definitely helps when he’s encouraging you and things like that. Those things are nice to see. Angela is the same way. They are all very competitive. So you know, they are positive things to help out, for sure.”

Let’s take this to a more practical level. While it would be an oversimplification to attribute Garcia’s attitude/thought-pattern shift merely to Akins, chalking it up to her influence plus the combination of maturity and experience may not be too extreme.

Listen to Garcia talking about his efforts to deal constructively with adversity and self-defeating thoughts.

“This week, I’ve done it better than I’ve ever had, and you know, because of that, I’ve looked at the course in a different way throughout the whole week. … I’m not going to lie; it’s not the golf course that I’m most comfortable in, because I’ve become more of a fader than a drawer of the ball, and this golf course is asking you to hit a lot of draws. But I knew that I could still work it around, you know, if I just accepted what was happening. So I’m very proud of that.”

And if that wasn’t clear enough, consider these remarks from the now-major-winning Spaniard.

”I think the problem is, because where my head was at sometimes, I did think about, am I ever going to win one? I’ve had so many good chances and either I lost them or someone has done something extraordinary to beat me. So it did cross my mind. But lately, you know, I’ve been getting some good help and I’ve been thinking a little bit, a little bit different, a little bit more positive. And kind of accepting, too, that if it for whatever reason it didn’t happen, my life is still going to go on. It’s not going to be a disaster.”

You don’t to be Dr. Bob Rotella to realize that the “thinking a little bit…different” is what needed to happen for Garcia to win a major.

It seems appropriate to fire up the old Bobby Jones quote, considering Garcia just won the tournament he founded: “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course… the space between your ears.” This has always seemed especially true for Sergio Garcia, a prodigy on the physical golf course. But now, at 37, with some “good help,” he’s both a major champion and a master of that five-and-a-half-inch course.