Stuart Appleby isn't dwelling on the what-ifs. He prefers to focus on what's ahead.

"It shows me that I had found a way and turned the corner," Stuart Appleby said of his tie for seventh in last year's Masters. (Jackie Ricciardi/Staff)

"I was very pleased that I turned the corner there," Appleby said of tying for seventh in the 2007 Masters Tournament, his highest Masters finish in 11 career starts. "I was beginning to wonder if I could find a way to get something done there. I hadn't managed to do that. We'll see in the future."

For a world-class golfer with a limited list of major boasts outside of a playoff loss in the 2002 British Open, Appleby found himself in the thick of the 2007 Masters. The final pairing had produced the champion 16 consecutive years, and he was there, the 54-hole leader, teeing off with a one-shot advantage beside Tiger Woods.

Appleby promptly double bogeyed the opening hole, falling out of the lead and losing whatever advantage he might have had. But it was a major misstep a day earlier that might have been even more significant.

The tournament would have been the Australian's to lose if he hadn't triple bogeyed the 17th hole Saturday after yanking his drive left of Ike's Tree and into a greenside bunker on the seventh hole.

The error cost him what would have been a four-shot lead come Sunday morning.

"Should have been in the middle of the fairway, no two ways about it, or somewhere a bit more respectable," Appleby said of the tee shot. "Yeah, that was the hole that I let a couple of shots slip for sure. Overall, I felt like there was plenty of holes where I could have let more slip throughout the day. I just happened to bunch one hole up and have a triple."

The triple-double combo in three holes spanning the weekend rounds proved to be the difference as Appleby finished four back of winner Zach Johnson. But he can't look at it so simplistically -- "spilled milk, move on," he said.

"It's Saturday," he said. "I don't even know if that would have made any difference. There was too much going on. If you had a four-shot lead or two-shot lead going to the last and lost, you can say that the last was critical. But if you started with a quadruple on the first hole, that's also critical. It just becomes more critical depending on the time in the tournament."

Appleby now sees his 2007 experience as a positive.

"It shows me that I had found a way and turned the corner," he said. "In five years ... we'll see where my game is there and whether that really did transform what for the first 10 years was an ordinary game to something that is top-10s on a regular basis or potentially winning."

Leading up to the Masters, Appleby is playing some of the most consistent golf of his career. He posted five consecutive top-10 finishes to start the season.

"If you're in the top 10, you've got a chance," he said. "This is a different start for my season. I have won early in the season before, but to actually be playing well and not won is new to me."

So is being a potential contender at Augusta National.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.