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Bumpy road for Steven Bowditch leads to Augusta

Steven Bowditch (right) played an afternoon front nine with fellow Australian Adam Scott Tuesday.Rob Carr/Getty Images

AUGUSTA, Ga. — If he’s being completely honest, Steven Bowditch will acknowledge that he didn’t wait until his winning bogey putt found the bottom of the cup at the Valero Texas Open 10 days ago to think about playing in his first Masters.

That thought came a few days before his first PGA Tour victory. Winning, you see, was the only way he could be included in this year’s field.

“The Friday before I won,” Bowditch said. “It’s part of the deal, you can’t not think about it. You just accept what it is and hopefully you move past it and be able to do what you do.”

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Bowditch’s unlikely victory — he showed up in San Antonio ranked 336th in the world — put Augusta on his schedule but left no time for a scouting visit before this week. He arrived on Monday, in a downpour, but still anxious for his first drive down Magnolia Lane.

Instead of taking a nice, slow, reflective spin in his courtesy car, savoring the long, trying journey it took to get him to this spot, Bowditch had to slam on the brakes.

“A police officer pulled out in front of me and I thought, ‘Oh man, please don’t crash on Magnolia Lane,’ ” Bowditch said. “But it was a cool moment, driving up and seeing the clubhouse.”

Like the other 93 players who will begin play at the 78th Masters on Thursday, Bowditch has an interesting story. Some of it involves golf. Much of it does not.

After his Texas Open win, Bowditch was asked about the clinical depression he’s dealt with for a number of years. According to a Golf Digest story five years ago, Bowditch attempted suicide in 2006, weighing himself down with heavy clothes and jumping into a Dallas pool. His then-girlfriend found Bowditch, pulled him out, and resuscitated him.

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In a week that should be one of the highlights of his professional career, Bowditch is being reminded of his darkest personal moments. It’s clear that the subject matter is sensitive, and not easy for him to discuss, even though he has in the past, and did so again Tuesday after he played Augusta National’s back nine, by himself.

“To be honest, I haven’t been candid at all with it,” he said. “I did one or two stories with it early, and all the publicity or whatever you want to call it are all from that. Everyone’s dealt with something. This is what I’ve dealt with.

“If I can help just that one person out there get through something, it’s worth all the questions and all the scrutiny and everything being re-brought up to the surface. Hopefully I can just keep playing golf and — I’m not going to say moved on, but, you know . . .”

Asked if the questions are like picking at a scab, Bowditch nodded.

“Yeah, that’s exactly right,” he said. “It’s a very private and personal matter.”

He’d much rather focus, at least publicly, on his golf. Bowditch turned a win in his native Australia on the 2005 Nationwide Tour into a spot on the 2006 PGA Tour, where he made just two cuts in 22 starts. He played his way back onto the tour in 2011, and has had at least partial status ever since.

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Now, with his victory, the 30-year-old from Queensland knows he’ll have at least two more years on tour. But this week will be special. Bowditch, and many like him in Australia, would set the alarm for the pre-dawn darkness and watch the Masters live on television.

Instead of watching, he’ll now be playing, hoping to make it two wins in a row for Australia. The very first hole he played at Augusta National was No. 10, and the minute he reached the green, Bowditch started looking for something, thinking back a year ago, when Adam Scott won the Masters there in a playoff.

“Where was that pin? Where was Scotty’s putt? That was actually the first thing when I got up there,” said Bowditch, one of seven Australians in the field this week. “I think it started last year here, I think this is really where the ball started rolling with Scotty, and Jason Day. What those guys have done for Australian golf has been unbelievable.”


Michael Whitmer can be reached at mwhitmer@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer.