All that Jazz: the ex-Buddhist monk meditating his way to golf's Masters

Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond has something special in his bag as he prepares for the US Masters -- the Buddhist meditation techniques learned as a monk that have helped him become the talk of Asian golf.

The 24-year-old is Augusta-bound after a huge year when he won the Asian Tour order of merit, with two tournament victories, and impressed at the PGA Championship at Bethpage.

Jazz's victory at the Indonesian Masters in December saw him safely inside the world top 50, and secured his place among golf's elite at the Masters in April.

The unassuming Thai is now 40th in the rankings, the second-highest Asian behind South Korea's Im Sung-jae, and he walked off with four 2019 Asian Tour awards including Players' Player of the Year.

The former teen prodigy -- who goes by the nickname given by his music-loving father -- became the youngest player, at 14 years and 71 days, to make the cut at an Asian Tour event in Bangkok in 2010.

But after turning pro at 15, there have been tough moments too and it was after losing his Asian Tour card in 2016 that he spent two weeks living as a Buddhist monk.

He shaved his head and wore saffron robes at the monastery in the northern Chiang Rai region, where the strict routine involved fasting, chanting and learning how to meditate.

Most young Thai men spend time as a monk and the experience had a profound effect on Jazz, who won his first Asian Tour event, in Bangladesh, a few months later.

- 'Play with respect' -
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"It's not all the time, it is stuff I do when I feel like something is off, or I feel like I need to get back to the peace or something is going crazy."
"You need to play to the course, not overcome it... play with respect."