Michael Campbell is hoping playing next week's US Open "blind", as he did before his victory at Pinehurst in 2005, will lead to an equally unexpected triumph at Torrey Pines.
But the New Zealander has amazingly admitted he feels his wild fluctuations in form could be down to a subconscious desire to escape the limelight.
Months after his shock first major victory three years ago, Campbell won the World Matchplay title at Wentworth but has not tasted success since, and has missed the cut in five of his seven European Tour events this season.
The 39-year-old has not broken 70 all year, has twice recorded rounds of 84, is a collective 54 over par for the year and missed the cut on his last appearance in the BMW Championship at Wentworth with consecutive rounds of 80.
It is also not the first time Campbell has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous in his career.
After almost winning the Open championship at St Andrews in 1995, Campbell managed just one top 10 on the European Tour in the following three seasons, lost his tour card and feared he would have to return to New Zealand to work as a telephone engineer.
Campbell even confessed later that he became so disenchanted with the game that he deliberately missed a putt so he would miss a halfway cut in a tournament.
Eventually his form returned, but after joining the US Tour things became so bad that, when he struggled to break 90 in the Players Championship in 2003, he said it felt as though "aliens have taken over my body".
At the end of 2004 his final rounds in his last three events were 86, 80 and 82 but just a few months later he was lifting the US Open trophy, becoming only the second New Zealander after Bob Charles to win a major title.
"I'm sick of asking the question why I have these peaks and troughs to be honest," Campbell told PA Sport.
"Ever since I was an amateur I've always done that.
"I think it's called complacency, maybe laziness. I get to a certain point in my career and take a bit of a break from the limelight you could say.
"I'm not really into the fame and fortune side of it, I just want to win golf tournaments and sometimes it can be overwhelming the whole attention because I'm a very quiet person. I don't really go out of my way to seek the limelight, it's just all part of the package with the success.
"Maybe it's a subconscious thing, it's a thought in my mind that I've reached a certain height and now it's time for me to be normal. I've been thinking about it for a very long time now.
"I do have those peaks and troughs and always have and when you analyse it, it's nothing do with my golf, nothing to do with what's happening on the golf course. It's me as a person, my personality. I want to take a break away from all the circus."
Campbell insists he is ready to step back into the limelight now, adding: "Yeah, because I miss it. I miss holding those trophies, it's the one thing that drives me.
"I feel like I've rekindled that fire in my belly a little bit and hopefully this week is the start of it."
By all accounts he could not have picked a much harder week, with Torrey Pines reportedly set to offer the world's best golfers a fierce examination of their skills.
After playing the course last month Phil Mickelson called the 7,600-yard monster "the hardest course in the world" and predicted the winning score would be comfortably over par.
"It's going to be a real tough test. I think definitely over par is going to win, that's for sure," agreed Campbell.
"Four or five over might even win the tournament. You've got to be patient out there, that's the key issue next week.
"You have to draw the line somewhere, sometimes the USGA makes the golf course a little bit harder than they should. At Oakmont last year I played a practice round on the Tuesday and it was playing so hard we were thinking 15 over was going to win the tournament.
"That's what the general consensus was between the players but then the heavens opened on Wednesday night and saved the golf course. It was on the brink of being unplayable. I don't mind playing a golf course that's tough but when it's unplayable...
"I went in blind when I played Pinehurst, I didn't play it at all until the Monday of that week so it's the same circumstances this time but obviously my form hasn't been that great."
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