Past champions are allowed to play Augusta National the Sunday leading into the Masters, so the 2016 champion made sure to show up. But he didn’t know if he would play.

Danny Willett had surgery on a torn labrum almost seven months ago. He’d been playing through it for years, his wife Nicole Willett said. It was a two-centimeter tear that grew to a four-centimeter one. Then it kept growing and developed cysts in the process. He had played on painkillers and injections but that no longer would work. There wasn’t a choice. He needed surgery.

“To know what you’re capable of,” Nicole Willett told AL.com while walking the second round of the Masters. “And not be able to do it because of pain.”

The Willett family was told it may take 12-18 months to recover. It certainly hasn’t been that long. Maybe this is not his full return yet but the former Jacksonville State golfer by way of England wanted to try. So, Sunday and Nicole Willett said her husband came back pain-free.

He loves the Masters. It’s still by far the biggest win of his career and he had the chance to play. He was never sure how he was going to play. That wasn’t really the point. As a former winner, nor was he taking someone’s spot in the field. So, he played.

“It’s not the pain, it was more just to see if it would cope and be all right playing Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Willett said. “In two weeks I’ve played a lot of golf, but it was more for the fact to see if it can hold up, which it can. Sunday was more about seeing how the visual suited your eye and if you can hit the shots that you want. As we’ve proved, we can still most of them, but there’s still a couple that are not quite where we want them to be.”

Largely, what he’s found is a renaissance. Willett entered this week with zero expectations, both he and Nicole Willett said. So much so that they didn’t even bring their two kids to Augusta. Danny Willett’s parents are watching the kids back in their adopted home of Florida.

Danny Willett is playing maybe as free as he has in years. The former Masters winner has only made the cut twice in seven appearances since wearing the green jacket in 2016. His best finish is 12th. Before this year, he only had three under-par rounds here since his win.

Now, in an event he was never supposed to play in, Willett is entering the weekend in the top 10 at -1. He shot -4 in the first round and in his post-round interview, Willett reminded how impressive that day was.

“It’s unexpected, isn’t it?” Willett said. “I had no idea what to expect.”

He nearly followed it up with an even par round Friday, nearly surviving a brutally tough wind-ripped day at Augusta National. But the whistling gusts led to him making a triple bogey on the 18th hole, dampening a round that otherwise set him up not just to play the weekend but contend.

The path to get to the Masters at all was complicated.

Nicole Willett described her husband’s work to rehab as religious, as if that were now his job and no longer golf. To get back to golf quickly, it had to be.

Each morning, Danny and Nicole Willett would take their kids — Zach, 8, and Noah, 6 — to school together. The boys have become “soccer mad,” Nicole Willett said, and Danny Willett takes them to practice often now. It’s a family of Liverpool fans. Danny Willett hasn’t gotten to spend this much time as a dad since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the kids were at school or practice, Danny Willett focused on rehabbing. That meant time in the gym, time in the sauna, time in ice baths, whatever it took.

For the first six to eight weeks after the surgery, Danny Willett said he couldn’t pick up anything. But in January, he realized he may be ahead of schedule. The Masters wasn’t exactly a target, Nicole Willett said, but it was certainly a goal.

“In January we kind of had a bit of a meeting,” Danny Willett said. “I’d been out to London to see the guys, and it was getting to where I could do all right, somewhat swing a club properly, but the strength was there. It was only a case of then, now that we know we’re not going to reinjure it, we really pressed on in January, and we had a really, really intense few months.”

It got him back to Augusta National. But he arrived still with a firm decision to make and only a goal to make it to the first tee.

So, he played his past champions round Sunday. He assumed he’d be pain-free and confirmed it. But he also had to make sure he could actually hit the type of shots he needed. The driving range back home can’t replicate that. He didn’t want to play if he wasn’t going to be able to produce at all.

“It was tricky,” Willett said of coming back so soon. “Yesterday the first tee shot was tough. Nerves, anxiety. You know that your practice has been all right, but you have visions of topping off the 1st tee or doing whatever. It’s a strange one, 6 1/2 months is a long time. And even though you’ve practiced it’s different when your hands are shaking and you’ve got people watching you as opposed to practicing at home.”

Yet it’s still evident just from watching Danny and Nicole Willett how loose they are. How they are not bound by any expectations. Nicole Willett said they are genuinely happy to be there at all. She thinks that opened up her husband to play his best golf.

It’s seen when Danny Willett could laugh after hitting his tee shot over the 12th green. It’s seen when Nicole Willet only discussed golf during her husband’s second round when AL.com asked about it walking along the Augusta fairways.

Taking a quick lunch break while Danny Willett made an eagle on the 8th hole, Nicole Willet said she doesn’t believe she’s ever had the classic Masters pimento cheese. She talked about concessions items, about the memories here, about enjoying being at a place where their last name is posted in a photo just inside the main clubhouse hallway.

He doesn’t think he can hit every shot yet. He got himself into trouble throughout his second round and managed to get out of it other than the 18th hole. Before that double bogey, he was only two shots back of the lead. It was impressive enough to be playing. Maybe even more so to be legitimately contending. He hasn’t been under real pressure in a major in several years.

This still isn’t Willett’s best. He wanted to play the Masters, but will take at least another seven weeks off after to finish recovering and get back to full and consistent competitive golf. Until then, he’s going to enjoy a weekend at Augusta regardless of the result.

“He didn’t know what he was going to do,” Nicole Willett said. “Him playing well is a bonus.”

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]