Shiv Kapur is in a good space, both in life and in his game.
His wife Maya is expecting their first child any day over the next week in New Delhi, and he has made the cut at the Asian Tour TAKE Solutions Masters at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course, carding an even-par 71 on the second day on Friday to go with a 1-under 70 in the first round.
"Tee to green has been pretty good; I have just struggled on the greens a bit," Kapur says. "Putting is as much a part of the game as anything else, but I have just struggled on the greens and hopefully I can find my line and pace over the weekend so that I can go low, as I seem to be doing everything else pretty well."
The event in Bengaluru is Kapur's first since qualifying for the British Open, where three successive bogeys in the second round at the Royal Birkdale golf course cost him a chance to make the cut, a 6-over 146 across two rounds meant he missed it by just one shot. He was in illustrious company, as compatriot Anirban Lahiri and former two-time champion Padraig Harrington lodged the same score after 36 holes. Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke, John Daly and Mark O'Meara were among several former champions who fared worse.
"It is obviously disappointing that one bad hole derailed my whole week, but I take only positives out of it," he says. "The one major positive was that given the tough conditions, I know that if I play as well as I am capable of, I can compete with the best in the world. More than that, the more you play in conditions like that and against the best in the world, it can help you improve. I am on the path to becoming a better golfer, and each major I play in, I feel that I can improve a bit more."
Kapur feels that the current crop of players around the world provide a lot more depth to the sport, but British Open champion Jordan Spieth is set apart by his mental strength. "If you watch him on the range -- and this is no disrespect to him -- he doesn't really separate himself from the 150 others in the field. But mentally, and around the field, he seems to be at a completely different level," says Kapur. "I think that's been talked about a lot -- the back nine on Sunday after losing the lead -- he seems to make the putts when he has to, and that's commendable. The clutch putts that he made; I saw the eagle putt he made on the 15th and that's when I said to myself, 'It's over'."
Kapur, into his 14th year as a pro, says while the depth in the sport has increased, it is the mental aspect of the game that young golfers need to pay attention to. "If you look back in the day, you could probably pick a winner out of 10 or 12 guys. There are now a 100 guys every week that have a chance," he says. "Everyone can hit the ball great, and you don't have to look at the majors. But when it comes down to it, it is about stringing four rounds together, to mentally hold yourself together and hit the right shots at the right time, and that's what separates the good from the great."
Kapur, who has had to work his way back into fitness and form after a liver abscess that required surgery, has had a good 2017 - winning his first Asian Tour event in 13 years in Taiwan, then finishing tied-2nd in Thailand before winning the British Open qualifier. Impending fatherhood, though, has given him a perspective on things.
"At times you think golf is the be-all and the end-all, and there's nothing more important than the shot in front of you. In the past, your mood would be dependent on the way you played and (there was) too much emphasis on your score," he says. "But when you go through some of the things that I went through -- sitting in a hospital bed and now thinking about becoming a father -- you realise golf is just what you do for a living. Now you go there, give it your best, and when it's all done, there's other things to look forward to."