New world No.4 Jason Day says he’s never been so focused and he’s determined to heed harsh lessons to capture the golf title he wants most – the Masters.

Coming off his stirring victory in the WGC-Match Play Championship, Day still has this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational later in March before his return to Augusta National in April.

But Day admits Magnolia Lane is already on his mind.

Watching countryman Adam Scott celebrate in his Masters green jacket win last year has been bittersweet for the 26-year-old as he knows he let the title slip through his fingers.

He stood on the 16th tee on Sunday with a two-shot lead and the chance to be Australia’s first Masters champion was in his control.

But back-to-back-bogeys scuppered his hopes and Scott surged before beating Angel Cabrera in a playoff.

“I should have won it,” Day said on Tuesday.

“I didn’t sleep that night and, although I was happy Scotty had won, it hurt me.

“But the next day I changed my thinking and said I have to look at it as a learning experience because if I keep the hurt I’ll be scarred forever.

“I think if I were in that situation again, I probably would have slowed down a lot more, just kind of talked to (caddie) Col (Swatton) a little bit more and really talked everything through so that all the information is gathered and I can execute the shot that I need to.

“At 16, the pressure did get to me little bit. I tried to hit it a little too hard coming down the stretch and that’s probably one of my problems, that I go at the ball a little bit too hard (in closing situations).

“I was so pumped and so amped and I was thinking, `I might hit this 7-iron long’.

“But I never verbalised that to Col. I just stepped up and hit it and of course, it went long.”

Day has plenty of reason for confidence heading back to Augusta National, having tied for second with Scott in 2011 before his third-place finish last year.

“I’ve always wanted to win the Masters so I’m not going to stop until I achieve that or I injure myself trying and I’m done in the game,” he said.

“I want it more than anything else.”

Day broke a run of near-misses in big events with his WGC-Match Play title on Sunday and says he feels that’s just the start.

“I feel like this is kind of a springboard for me to go out and play better golf, and hopefully win a lot more.

“I’ve never been so focused in my life. I’m striving to become like Tiger Woods or, in my own words, Jason Day.”