PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- It has been one full month since Danny Willett stole a green jacket in broad daylight. One month since he was the fortunate beneficiary of Jordan Spieth's back-nine travails. And one month since he last teed it up in competition, his first major championship title affording him a lengthy respite from life inside the ropes.
All of which should leave us wondering what he has been up to. In advance of playing this week's Players Championship, has he been gearing up for another title contention? Prepping the subtle nuances of his swing? Refining his short game?
When posed the question Tuesday afternoon about what he has accomplished in the wake of his Masters victory, Willett flashed a wry smile, paused slightly and offered an answer most others in his position might be afraid to admit.
"I've drunk more."
Of course, Willett hasn't spent the entirety of the last month imbibing. He played just one round of golf -- this past Saturday -- but there have been other responsibilities, some of which come from being the reigning Masters champion, some of which come from a more important role.
"I've changed a lot of nappies," explained Willett, a first-time father whose son was born March 29, 12 days before he became the owner of a green jacket.
Willett still seems so unassuming. He's a Masters champion but could stroll through a golf course without too much fanfare, especially here in the United States, where he just took up PGA Tour membership.
In his native England, he has become a bit more of a star.
"It does kind of go into your personal life a little bit," he said. "You can't go and have a nice quiet drink with the missus and stuff. At nighttime, you get people asking for pictures, autographs. It comes with the territory. You can't really complain about signing a few autographs and taking a few pictures because you've just won the Masters. No, I mean, coming back down to reality was literally the first day you get back home, you open the door, [wife] Nic's there, and the dog jumps up and licks you and you got your little man to change. So that was straight back down to reality, just being a dad and a husband."
That reality has kept him real. His rhetoric isn't nearly as refined as other major champions. He doesn't offer canned responses or obtuse clichés. When he's asked a question, he answers it directly, without dancing around the topic or filibustering.
It's this type of interview strategy that mirrors his golf game. See ball, hit ball, go hit it again. It's simple -- and it works.
It also helps explain how a Masters champion can retreat to domestic life so easily. No post-victory whirlwind tour of the talk-show circuit, no mugging for cameras or hawking new products on TV.
"We haven't really done a great deal, to be honest," he said. "Every single spare minute that we have had, we have locked the door and tried to just have some alone time. We have obviously had to go up and down and do media bits with the jacket and stuff, which have been pretty cool, and speaking to different people about things. But interesting? I I don't think I've done anything too [interesting]."
Willett hasn't even done anything too interesting with the green jacket -- not that he's admitted, at least. In the hours after his win, photographs surfaced on social media of him wearing the prize into the wee hours of the night, but he insisted that was the exception to the rule.
"I probably wear it a lot less than what most people think I would wear it, but I don't want to get it dirty or spill anything on it," he explained. "So no, it stays sort of up in the wardrobe obviously, and then, yeah, it travels everywhere, just in case you have to go meet someone or you go do something with it."
And no, he said, he doesn't change those dirty diapers while wearing the jacket: "Definitely not. You can't trust him when you're changing him."
Willett also isn't the type to bask in his own glory.
Two days after his Masters win, he watched the final-round telecast of his Masters win. And then, that was it.
"I've only watched it back once," he said. "I had a beer and watched it back over again and kind of chuckled and smiled to myself and realized what you've done, and then it's been back to day-to-day daddy duties."
Some drinking, some diaper changing. And not much golf.
That's how Willett celebrated his Masters victory, one which has left him just as grounded as he was before.