Martin Kaymer insists he is not about to press any panic buttons despite dropping out of the world's top 10.
The 27-year-old German was on top of the world little more than a year ago, having already claimed eight European Tour titles and a major, while a closing 63 to win the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in November was arguably the round of the season.
However the best he has managed this year so far is a seventh place in a relatively weak field at the Malaysian Open.
Now Kaymer, bottom of his group when top seed at last week's Volvo World Match Play in Spain, is at Wentworth for Europe's flagship BMW PGA Championship.
"I think it's pretty normal that you can't play great golf every week," he said.
"People have to understand in sport that every athlete is human."
As a way of illustrating that, he reminded everyone about Lionel Messi's penalty miss for Barcelona against Chelsea and then the misses at Saturday's final in Munich.
"You think they are world-class athletes, but even they can fail or miss once in a while," he said.
"So it's just a matter of time that I will play great golf again. Everybody goes through a time when it's not ideal.
"I need to go a step back now and just wait for my chances.
"I practise a lot and it will pay off sooner or later. It's just sometimes a little frustrating when it doesn't pay off straight away, but that's what it is in sport.
"There's nothing wrong. I think that one of my strengths is that I know what I have to do and I know what I'm doing.
"There are a lot of people that tell you what you do wrong and what you have to do different, but it doesn't bother me - I know what my goal is.
"If you change a few things or if you try to improve a few things you've got to go back one step in order to go two steps forward.
"I'm still young. I don't need to worry about it that much."
Nor is Kaymer going to put himself in cotton wool off the course. Three years ago he broke toes in a go-karting accident, but he still goes.
"I like every kind of sport as long as you don't go too far, but that is the fun part sometimes - to go a little bit over the line is when the adrenaline comes out," he added.
"Of course I do certain things. Maybe this is not the right time and place to talk about it, but I don't want to hide in my apartment and just play golf.
"There's more than playing golf. You've got to have a life, do what normal people do."
