Even at 43, Adam Scott has the nerve to play more aggressively and shake-up the accepted practices of his youth to push for the lower scores to beat golf’s young guns.
Scott’s quest for a second ISPS HANDA Australian Open will unfold over the next four days at the Australian and The Lakes, two Sydney golf clubs with very different personalities.
It’s hard to believe that he has only won his national Open on a single occasion at NSW Golf Club in 2009. He has been in the final day script so often, it seems like he should have won two or three.
There was the last-hole bogey that made things too easy for Rory McIlroy to win at Royal Sydney in 2013. Last year, he couldn’t convert the lead he had on Poland’s Adrian Meronk in the final round.
There have been other moments as well. Most of all, it reflects admirably on Scott’s sustained commitment to his local tour in Australia. He’s been the rock and still is even though other headliners like Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee have emerged.
Scott isn’t sliding into the background just yet. He’shungry for another Australian Open trophy and more wins on the PGA Tour.
What has changed is the method and understanding of what it will take to win for the first time in more than three years.
“The game is a way more aggressive game today. It’s a more inconsistent game because of that but if you want to win, you are going to have to create all those opportunities and make them as well,” Scott said.
“One of the big areas of adjustment for me over say 12 months is the analysing of the golf course and the course management strategy let’s say. It’s understanding the best way to play courses and create enough opportunities so you can get to 20-under.
“I’ve definitely adjusted my style of play to suit the modern player because the approach to managing the golf course is completely different to the way I learned.
“It’s not my instinct often to hit driver and aim it in the left rough and that’s a good shot. I learnt to hit the ball in the fairway. Now, the scoring average out of the left rough is better and that’s how the game is played.
“Attacking is the way. You have to accept some bad results because you are going for it but you’re looking for those five or six weeks a year where you go for it and you’re on and you make a tonne of birdies and you get the big results.”
Scott is pleased that he’s racked up more mid-60s scores this year with the tweaked mentality. He produced seven scores of 65 or better among his 16 scores of 67 or better on the PGA Tour this year from 19 events. From the same number of tournaments, he had only three scores of 65 or better and 13 scores of 67 or better in his Masters-winning year of 2013.
Scott knows where the challenges will come from this week.
He has a high regard for newly-crowned Australian PGA champion Min Woo Lee, an ambassador for ISPS HANDA.
“It’s great that Min is is that kind of personaluty who can feed off the crowd, enjoys being a bit of a showman and can perform doing that,”Scott said.
“One of the things I see with Min is he likes the stage so if he can get there a lot he’ll be really successful.”
Scott expects 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith, the former world No.2, to shake off his poor 73-78 from his last start in the Australian PGA in Brisbane.
Smith said his failure last week cut him so deeply because he was playing at home “not just in Australia but in my home town with lots of friends and family there.”
“So there’s been lots of hard work and hitting lots of balls with my coach. It only takes a few good shots and a few good feels and all of a sudden you’re looking at yourself at the top of the leaderboard,” Smith said.
Minjee Lee is the highest-ranked player in the women’s field at No.5 in the world.
“I quite enjoy seeing the men around and the All Abilities competitors. I feel like every Australian Open when we come back we can have a huge reunion with the people we haven’t seen for a long time,” Lee said.
“The Aussie Open is always a tough trophy to win. Of course, we are going to put added pressure because we (Lee and Hannah Green) want to play really well, especially in front of a home crowd.”
England’s Kipp Popert came from well back to win last year’s Australian All Abilities title.
“I’m looking forward to competing with my friends. We were all just on the chipping green having a good laugh and practising together . We all get on and we want to beat each other, a lot,” said Popert (pictured below).
Photos: PGA of Australia
