After a Masters tournament where he was never in contention, Rory McIlroy alluded to the conundrum as to where his game is at the moment, highlighting the difficulty in getting the "good golf" out of himself.
"We then played in the heaviest of the winds on Friday and it was tough; I just kept my head above water that day and ended up happy to have a tee-time for Saturday.
"I played okay on Saturday but not good enough to get myself back in contention. Today, look the golf course is tough, a tough course to shoot low on which I needed to do to try and get myself back in it."
What's frustrating McIlroy is that he feels his 'A game' is close, but at the moment, in some respects, it feels far away.
Expanding on that, he added: "I feel I'll play the worse golf I can play and finish 20th but getting the good golf out of myself is a little bit more difficult at the minute than it has been before. My bad golf is good enough to come here, finish 20th, and that's an average week. I need to figure out a way to get my best free-wheeling golf out of me, especially in these weeks.
For Shane Lowry, it was a case of accentuating the positives after a final round 74 saw him finish on eight over in a tie for 46th.
In the previous two years, Lowry was tied third and 16th respectively, yet he seemed more content after completing his ninth Masters appearance.
"Things went against me early on today; I felt I didn't play badly; I just left leaving myself eight feet for par and kept missing them. I felt like over the last ten holes I played really nice golf.
Gusty winds made life difficult for many of the players, such weather the Offaly native has not experienced before at the year's first major.
"It was so gusty and windy and it was hard to be precise. How many players were going to finish under par this week? Probably in the single digits for the tournament, so that was the week that was played. It has just been a very tough test of golf; the gusty conditions of the first two days I haven't seen at all.
"I went out, I tried, I failed, but I'll come back again.
"I still feel pretty good and I'm excited for the next few months. Obviously you're out there and you're over par for the day and it's hard to take. But when you step back and look at the shots I'm hitting, it's a bounce here or there."
After cantering to a four-shot victory for his second Masters title, Scottie Scheffler warned that he wasn't inclined to take his foot off the gas.
The world number one's thoughts immediately turned to getting home as soon as possible to his wife Meredith, who is pregnant with their first child, but he also intends to keep challenging for the game's biggest titles.
"I'm coming home, I'll be home as quick as I can," Scheffler said when asked if he had a message for his wife.
"I wish I could soak this in a little bit more but all I can think about is getting home. It's a very, very special time for both of us.
"I can't put into words what it means to win this tournament again and really can't put into words what it's going to be like to be a father for the first time.
"I definitely will enjoy the birth of my first child, and my priorities will change very soon, so golf will be fourth in line, but I still love competing.
"I don't plan on taking my eye off the ball any time soon."
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