It's a very big mental game, all day leading up to warm-ups. You're not sure if your curveball will break, or will you be able to throw it over the plate? It's all negative thoughts going into the game.
The first time I played the Masters, I was so nervous I drank a bottle of rum before I teed off. I shot the happiest 83 of my life.
Before coming here I had a minor back problem and I thought whenever I play Pakistan I get a back problem.
Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American... and the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year-1956...But Bill Russell had this one problem: He threw up before every game.
It's fine to admit being nervous - after the event. But if you tell people you're uptight before the game, it can be like, 'That guy's got problems. We can't trust him.'
I have to leave the games now if the announcer says something I don't agree with. I'm thinking, 'Peyton, it is not healthy to be all worked up before a game.'
I'm nervous before all games, but once I hit that first shot, the jitters go away.
In the moments before a game starts my stomach turns around as if I had to vomit. Then I have to choke so violently until my eyes tear.
I think, when I was younger and I was on loan, I used to get nervous before games, but as you get older, you adapt to it, and it becomes second nature to walk out onto the pitch and perform.
When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.
