PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The last time Stephen Ames made headlines he was getting shellacked 9 and 8 by Tiger Woods in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

“I got my ass kicked and that was it,” Ames recalled with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. “Next week, next event. That’s how I went on. What am I going to do, sit down and cry about it?”

On Sunday, his emotions were much different, as were the roles. Ames was the one notching the lopsided victory -- this time at THE PLAYERS Championship where Woods and 47 of the top 50 players in the world had gathered for the PGA TOUR’s signature event.

Ames’ brother Robert, who has caddied for his brother off and on since 1996, said he’d never seen his older sibling play better. “The best ball-striking, the best thinking -- all the things you need to do to win the fifth major,” he said.

Ames fired a brilliant 67, which was the low round on a cool, breezy, pressure-packed afternoon when the average score was 75.378, to win by a whopping six shots. The victory was worth $1.44 million to Ames and came accompanied by a Masters invitation.

If he decides to accept it, that is.

Just as Ames kept reporters scribbling in their notebooks at La Costa when he suggested “anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball” prior to his match with Woods, Ames toyed with them again Sunday when he wouldn’t commit to playing at Augusta National in a week.

Ames and his wife, Jodi, are about to embark on a two-week vacation that will take them and their two sons back to Trinidad and Tobago, where Ames was born. Whether they’d rather detour to southeast Georgia remains to be seen.

“I have no plans of playing at Augusta,” Ames said, explaining that his kids are on spring break and family comes first. Later, he added, “I’d rather go on vacation, to be truthful.”

After repeated questions, though -- seven to be exact -- the naturalized Canadian citizen left the door ajar. And just so there was no misunderstanding, Ames said Augusta is “the greatest place in the world,” before reiterating that he didn’t want to disappoint his children.

“I’m going to have to cut their spring break short by saying, ‘Dad is going to go play another golf tournament,’” Ames, who tied for 45th in his Masters debut last year, said. “It just wasn’t on the schedule. Now it is, obviously, so I’ve got to sit down and talk to them and see what happens.”

Family is extremely important to Ames, particularly after what his own brood has undergone in the last year. Jodi was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer, in May and half of her left lung was removed last July.

Ames became Mr. Mom, taking the boys on the road with him while Jodi convalesced. Robert said Sunday that two subsequent tests have revealed the remainder of the tissue to be clear so the family is extremely hopeful.

Still the recovery is slow.

“She’s at the stage now of her surgery where she walks up the stairs now and she’s trying to catch her breath,” Ames said. “That’s where she is right now.”

For several months, Ames understandably found it difficult to focus on golf. That’s what made Sunday’s dominating win on the PGA TOUR’s biggest stage all the more satisfying.

“When I was playing the British Open last year I’m standing over each golf shot going, ‘What am I doing with this golf ball?’” recalled Ames, who went on to miss the cut. “I had no thought what I wanted to do with it. I knew right there I was in a distant zone somewhere else.”

Woods, whose father Earl is battling prostate cancer, understands. On the eve of THE PLAYERS, he left Florida and flew home to California to spend time with his father -- but returned to make his 12:33 p.m. tee time on Thursday.

“Some days are where that's the greatest place to be, on the golf course away from everything,” Woods said. “Sometimes that's one of the tougher places to be. It depends on the situation and given circumstances.”

Ames said he finally was able to start concentrating on golf again last year at the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship in San Francisco where he finished 10th. His customary 10-week break over the winter gave way to his usual slow start this season, but all that changed on Sunday.

“It was a difficult year for my wife and myself,” Ames said. “And my boys, yeah, they probably watched (THE PLAYERS) as they came in this afternoon. It’s going to be a big thrill and a wonderful vacation now.”

There’s that word again