When he noticed his caddie wearing a "Masters hat" during the final round of January's Mercedes Championships, Daniel Chopra thought the choice might be significant.

Chopra (Jackie Ricciardi/Staff)

Chopra went on to win the tournament in a sudden-death playoff, which earned him a start in his first Masters Tournament.

His caddie, Mitch Knox, said he wasn't trying to send his man a message.

"It was the only hat I had to wear," Knox said.

Chopra said he "probably noticed" the hat when he met Knox that morning for their practice session.

"Maybe it was inspiration, I don't know. He wore it and maybe it was a good omen," Chopra said. "I never said anything and we never said anything. I just noticed he had it on and that was about it. It might have been the day after when we talked about it."

Chopra isn't completely sold on Knox's story. He said Knox has a history of sending "little side messages" to him.

"I don't know if he thought about that consciously, but maybe that was his little key, 'Hey, let's get it done today and this (the Masters) is where we're going,' " Chopra said. "That's the kind of guy Mitch is. He likes that stuff."

The season-opening Mercedes win was Chopra's second in three starts. He won the second-to-last tournament of the 2007 season, finished 52nd in the final one, then won the first of 2008.

His first victory came in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Because it was part of the seven-event Fall Series -- which followed the Tour Championship -- it was not recognized by Augusta National Golf Club as a qualifying tournament.

So there was Chopra, playing in the winner's-only Mercedes Championship, yet he wasn't in the Masters.

"No, it wasn't weird," he said. "I won a tournament that wasn't a qualifying tournament and I decided to go and do it there, and I did."

Now the Swede is one of 19 first-time participants in the Masters. It's a tournament Chopra followed for years on television in India, where he moved when he was 7 and where he grew up.

The first Masters he remembers watching live was Jack Nicklaus' stirring victory in 1986, when Chopra was 12. The rest were tape-delayed.

"It's just something I've always wanted to do," Chopra said of playing in the Masters. "I always wanted to play when I saw it in 1986 when Nicklaus won. I fell in love with it ever since."

His TV viewing has become research for his first Masters.

"I know it (Augusta National) like the back of my hand. I knew exactly where everything is. I've just never been there," Chopra said.

"I'm looking forward to playing the back nine because that's all you ever got to see on TV. Now they've started showing the front nine as well and I'm familiar with that as well, but not as intimately as I am the back nine."

Most Masters rookies are concerned about navigating the fast bentgrass greens at Augusta National. Not Chopra.

"I can't wait," he said. "They're perfect greens and they've got some slope to them. They require imagination and those are two things I'm good at: imagination and putting."

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.