MELBOURNE: Adam Scott will appreciate some time off to stop and smell the roses after a breakthrough year and a maiden major trophy at the US Masters, but the Australian may find it hard to quit while enjoying some of the best form of his career.
The world number two tees up for the second week of a month-long swing of his home country at the Australian Masters this week, where he will defend the title he credits for easing the crushing disappointment of last year’s British Open and setting up his Augusta triumph.
Scott blitzed a modest field to win the Australian PGA Championship last week in his former Gold Coast home, and his homecoming continues at Royal Melbourne today where he will take on American world number eight Matt Kuchar and Fijian three-time major champion Vijay Singh. Children mobbed Scott as he donned the famed green jacket of an Augusta winner at the Gold Coast, and the amiable 33-year-old was itching to show it off again for Melbourne fans.
“It’s down here this week. Hopefully the weather improves a little bit and I’ll be able to bring it out a little bit for everyone to see,” Scott told reporters yesterday after completing nine holes of the pro-am in miserable, rainy weather.
“It doesn’t get seen much down here, so I’m trying to get it out as much as possible, not get it too dirty. Just the golf fan in me, when you see it and you stop and think about it, it’s amazing that it’s actually in the wardrobe and I get to travel around with it.
“Maybe also for an Australian it’s the holy grail of golf because we’ve been trying for it for so long ... I get to wear it around the house or in a hotel room, it’s quite surreal actually.”
Scott returns to Melbourne a far different golfer to the pensive character of a year ago, who was plagued by questions about his mental fortitude in the wake of his British Open meltdown.
Reuters
