Adam Scott has a PGA Tour card locked up for 2024 no matter what happens at the Wyndham Championship. Exactly when he might be playing again, however, is up in the air depending on his fate this week at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The 43-year-old Australian is No. 81 on the FedEx Cup points list heading into the week, with only the top 70 qualifying for the Playoffs that begin next week in Memphis. Scott has to finish no worse than a two-way tie for T-9 to move on and more comfortably needs a three-way T-3 finish. Otherwise, for the first time since the advent of the FedEx Cup in 2007, Scott will be missing out on post-season action. Along with Matt Kuchar, Scott is one of just two players who have qualified for Playoffs all previous 16 seasons.

“At this point, you know, it is what it is,” says Scott, having been outside the top 70 bubble for much of the summer. “I feel like when I come out to play golf, I’m there to give it my best shot and if I make it, I make it. And if I don’t, I don’t.”

But with an opening-round five-under 65 that led the early scoring at Wyndham, Scott looks like he is plenty motivated to keep the streak alive.

Asked what his mindset is this week, Scott offered a simple but focused strategy.

“If I can be the low man every day, I’ll be just fine for winning the tournament and getting through to the playoffs,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ve got a few more good ones in me.”

Starting off the 10th tee and dodging the morning rain drops, Scott bogeyed the 11th hole, but bounced back with birdies on Nos. 12 and 13. Then came two more on the 15th and 17th holes.

“It’s that thing of how you start and getting under par early and feeling like you’re moving in the right direction is definitely a … definitely a settling feeling in a tournament,” Scott said. “When you’re a couple over early, you start finding the golf course much more difficult than it probably really is and hard to find that momentum. So those early birdies were good.”

Scott has come to terms with not making the Playoffs, which might actually free him up this week, too. “I’ve had a lot of years having a go at the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and all these kind of things come to an end at some point.”

If it did this year, though, it’s unclear when Scott might then play his next PGA Tour event. The Aussie often plays a sparse autumn schedule and without the need to earn any points during the Fall Series events this year to keep a card for 2024, Scott potentially might have played his last tour event for the year.

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Take Scottie Scheffler, who caromed one off the face at No. 18 on Friday and saw his golf ball trickle out to tap-in range as he made the cut on the number. And on Sunday, Adam Scott pulled off this neat trick even better on the fourth hole.

Check it out as the Aussie’s golf ball ricochets hard off the face, pops up into the air, lands softly on the green, and rolls right into the hole for an unlikely birdie:

Up against the face. 

No problem for Adam Scott. pic.twitter.com/8nDe5xaFPh

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 23, 2023

Cue the jokes about “The bank being open on Sunday!” for Scott. What a wild shot.

We’re not sure if Adam actually called bank there, but we’re positive that he was happy with the result.

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Adam Scott admitted to listening to LIV Golf’s overtures in February of 2022, telling the media at Riviera ahead of the Genesis Invitational: “I think the schedule they’re proposing is very appealing to probably most golfers. Depending what your goals are in golf, I think the schedule is very appealing. From that side of things, I would consider doing that, for sure. From a lifestyle side of things, yes.”

But Scott never went to the circuit, instead taking a leadership role on the tour’s Player Advisory Council in hopes of changing professional golf for the better.

So it’s fair to wonder how the Aussie is feeling following the surprise announcement that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s backer, the Public Investment Fund, are planning to form a new entity together. Speaking to the media ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship, the former Masters champ calmly spoke about the “emotional” response some players had to the news.

“I think as far as the deal goes, I’m happy to wait and see how the deal points are worked out and see whether that really suits as a whole,” Scott explained. “Of course I have some emotional — I’m caught up emotionally because I stayed on the PGA Tour and this looks, it was put to us that if we left we were never coming back, and it seems there is going to be pathways back. You know, eventually we’ll find out if that’s the best for the game and how we feel. So I have some emotions about that, but kind of time often plays a big part in these things so see how it advances.”

Scott clarified he never felt “angry” about the proposed deal, although did say last week’s US Open felt like a respite of sorts from the drama.

“Even though we were all there and the same players are there, it wasn’t a PGA Tour event. It was run by the USGA and felt like a break,” Scott said. “We’re straight back into it with player meetings here this week. I think that’s like what I said before, just when you’re very surprised, some emotions are stirred up, and I think you can’t help but feel — you can’t help but feel left in the dark even though I don’t expect to run the PGA Tour and them to run everything by me. It was just sooner than maybe anybody thought. That’s all.”

Scott did say that Tuesday’s players’ meeting with PGA Tour officials went better than a similar meeting at the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago, although there are a lot of questions that currently don’t have answers. To Scott, those answers will come in time.

“So although that seems fairly simple, I think the deal sounds quite complex and this could take a long time,” Scott said. “I think hopefully everyone is cooling down and as things go along, there is transparency to the players and those questions get answered.

“And then, you know, I think it will be evaluated whether it’s a good deal for the PGA Tour and its players and the game of golf moving forward.”

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Ask Australia’s Min Woo Lee how he got into the field at the $20 million Travelers Championship despite being a Special Temporary Member on the PGA Tour, and he’ll tell you it’s a funny story.

Lee originally planned to spend this week watching his sister Minjee, a two-time LPGA major winner, compete at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at New Jersey’s famed Baltusrol Golf Club. He was not in the field for Travelers, a designated event, and so it was a nicely timed week off. Those plans still looked firm Saturday night in Los Angeles, after the third round of the U.S. Open, when Lee was two under par and eight shots off the 54-hole lead.

That night, Min Woo got a text from Adam Scott, Lee’s countryman and childhood idol, with an offer to ride on the former World No.1’s private jet to Hartford, Connecticut. “I’m not in Travelers, sorry,” Lee responded, to which Scott had a pointed reply that Lee paraphrased: “Just finish in the top 10 then and you can come. Go get it done.”

Indeed, a top-10 finish at LACC would qualify Lee to start in the next PGA Tour event if not already in the field.

Inspired, Lee shot a bogey-free 67 in the final round to finish tied for fifth. It was his best result in a major championship and first top-10 on the PGA Tour. Sure enough, Lee and his caddie, Stu Davidson, hitched a ride on Scott’s plane.

A ride in Adam Scott’s private jet inspired tour pro’s impressive Sunday US Open finish. Mike Mulholland

“It was a really cool feeling for Adam to do that for me. He’s been a good mentor in my career,” Lee said of the 14-time PGA Tour winner. “I grew up watching him win the [2013] Masters and now he’s become a friend. It’s special.”

Lee has until the end of the season, which will include the autumn portion of the schedule after the FedEx Cup Playoffs, to earn at least the same non-member points as No. 125 in the standings to secure his PGA Tour card next season. With a T-6 at the Players Championship in March and the T-5 at the US Open, he’s well on track. Either way, the 24-year-old is feeling good about his attempt to transition from the DP World Tour, where he’s won twice, to the PGA Tour.

The native of Perth, Western Australia just wants to examine why he sometimes has a poor round within a big event that drops him out of contention, like a Saturday 74 at LACC when he was only three off the lead.

“I really have to dig deep on why the occasional bad round happens but my good golf is awesome I feel I can compete out here,” Lee said. “If I do the right things, experience will start to develop. I’ve only played in a handful of majors, so it’s nice to play well in the early stages of my career. I’m excited to play Travelers this week.”

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One of the great images in Masters history is Scott leaning back in celebration with his arms held aloft in the rain and fading light after his sudden-death play-off win against Ángel Cabrera.

Augusta National has delivered many magical moments, but his 15-foot birdie putt across the 10th green on the second extra hole brought a thrilling battle for the Green Jacket to a dramatic climax.

Less than a year earlier, Scott had suffered the agony of missing out on his maiden major at the Open Championship, squandering a four-shot lead with four holes to play to lose out to Ernie Els by one shot at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

But after facing adversity, the strength of a player often emerges.

Amid the most intense pressure imaginable and backing from the public in his homeland, he earned redemption on one of golf’s biggest stages.

Bloomberg

“It’s amazing that it’s my destiny to be the first Aussie to win [the Masters], it’s just incredible,” said Scott, who had finished runner-up alongside compatriot Jason Day at Augusta in 2011.

Day, again, was in contention this time around but two bogeys in his final three holes saw him falter and miss out on the play-off as first Scott and then Cabrera birdied the 72nd hole to reach nine-under.

Playing in the penultimate group of the day, Scott rolled in a near 30-foot birdie putt across the 18th green to momentarily lead by one amid roars from the patrons around the green.

But Cabrera, the joint overnight leader, responded by hitting a fantastic approach shot to within a few feet to make a birdie of his own as he targeted his third major win.

From thinking he had won for a split-second, Scott had to come back and win it a second time.

Scott, who had played alongside Cabrera in the first two rounds, came into the play-off with the momentum having birdied three of his final six holes.

The pair returned to the 18th for a fifth time that week for the first extra hole. After finding the narrow fairway with their tee shots, both saw their approach shots come back off the front of the green and finish within 10 feet of each other.

Cabrera then almost holed his third shot, his ball grazing the right edge to leave a tap-in par. Scott came up a few feet short with his effort, but he rolled in the putt to extend the contest.

Then came the drama of the 10th where the Presidents Cup teammates both found the green in regulation after nerveless approach shots with six iron in hand.

Cabrera, who won a play-off against Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry to win the Masters three years earlier, just missed his birdie putt on the high side to set the stage for Scott to win the Green Jacket at shortly before 9.40am on Australia’s east coast.

“It fell my way today, there was some luck there but it’s incredible to be in this position. I’m honoured,” Scott said.

At last week’s 87th Masters Tournament, Scott extended his run of making the cut at Augusta to 14 consecutive years as he finished in the top 40 on his 22nd appearance.

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All square against Sam Burns through 10 holes in their Thursday match at Austin CC, Scott appeared to gain the upper hand on the par-3 11th, as his tee shot was tracking toward the flag stick. The ball never left its mark, which proved to be unfortunate for the former Masters champ.

The tee shot ended up hitting the stick and ricocheting toward the pond, one of the unluckiest shots you’ll ever see.

The twirl ?
The precision ?
The result ?@AdamScott gets the most unlucky break of the day @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/02yreVBDXy

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 23, 2023

Just brutal.

The only saving grace was Scott’s ball stayed dry. The Aussie ended up making par to tie Burns on the hole. He did make three birdies over the next six holes, but Burns did too and ultimately defeated Scott, you guessed it, 1 up.

The post WGC Match Play: Adam Scott goes from an almost ace to near rinse in one of the unluckiest shots you’ll ever see appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But one course has proven a riddle Woods can’t seem to solve: Riviera Country Club, site of the tournament, the Genesis Invitational, that the 47-year-old now hosts.

It seemed only logical that Woods would eventually triumph at Riviera. It’s not far from where he grew up in Cypress, California, and it’s where Woods made his PGA Tour debut as 16-year-old amateur in 1992. Meanwhile, the George Thomas layout is relatively generous off the tee, with slick, sloped greens that demand precise iron play and careful lag putting — both of which Woods is considered among the greatest ever at doing.

Yet in 13 starts at Riviera as a pro, Woods has never claimed victory — only a runner-up finish in 1999 and three other top-10s. Woods has never played more times at a tour course without winning.

The disconnect is one that not only Woods can’t explain, but neither can his fellow tour pros. Max Homa, a self-confessed Woods superfan and the 2021 champion at Riviera, said it best.

Max Homa got to see Tiger Woods play upclose when they were paired for the opening two rounds at the Open Championship last July. Ross Kinnaird

“It makes absolutely no sense,” Homa said. “It’s a second-shot golf course, and he’s the greatest iron player of all time. It truly makes no sense.”

Homa, ranked 12th in the world, and Woods share victories at several venues where superior iron play is rewarded. That includes Quail Hollow, where Homa has won twice, and Torrey Pines, where Woods won eight titles including the 2008 US Open and where Homa last month earned his sixth career tour victory last month.

“I consider my strength being my iron play my whole career and I’ve played well [at Riviera] a lot” Homa said. “And when I go to certain courses that Tiger has played great at, like the ones where he’s completely dominated, like Bay Hill, I play well at [too]. So when you come [to Riviera], I would have thought he’d won 10 times. I don’t know, golf’s funny in that way. He’s good at everything, but that one’s a mystery to me because this seems like this would just be a playground for him.”

Adam Scott also has had plenty of success at Riviera. The Australian star won a weather-shortened Nissan Open in 2005, before grabbing an official PGA Tour win at Riviera in 2020. Like Homa, the 2013 Masters winner scratches his head as to why Woods is winless at the historic Southern California layout.

“He’s a really great iron player and you have to be a good iron player to play well here,” Scott said. “That may just be an anomaly and the only one in his whole career maybe. It’s a little bit inexplicable. I don’t know what to say about that. He’s certainly capable of handling it.”

Scott, who is chasing an elusive second career major to go with his green jacket, did have a solution — although it’s unlikely to happen. “I don’t know if he just doesn’t feel it here, but I’ll share some tips with him if he shares some tips on how to win a few majors with me.”

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Scott, 42, was appointed to the position following a vote from the tour’s membership. Scott will serve as the chairman for 2023 and will replace Charley Hoffman as one of the player directors on the tour’s policy board. Scott beat out Maverick McNealy and Kevin Streelman for the role.

Interestingly, the appointment comes on the one-year anniversary of Scott acknowledging his interests in LIV Golf at the 2022 Genesis Invitational. “Depending what your goals are in golf, I think [LIV Golf’s] schedule is very appealing,” Scott said last year. “From that side of things, I would consider doing that, for sure. From a lifestyle side of things, yes.”

Later, Scott would add: “Well, when there’s only a proposed 14 events, let’s say, and you might pick to play some other events, there seems to be time for a legitimate off-season. I think that’s really missed on the PGA Tour from all aspects but certainly from the top players. I think we would all like to see a break, and a break where you’re not penalised for taking a break. I think that’s one of the big things.”

The PAC advises and consults with the PGA Tour policy board and commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the tour. Other player directors are Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati.

Scott has made over 370 career starts on the PGA Tour and boasts 14 wins, highlighted by his triumph at the 2013 Masters. He is fifth on the tour’s all-time career earnings list at just over $60 million.

Scott is in this week’s Genesis Invitational field, making just his third start this season. He won the event in 2020.

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Given the proximity of Hawaii to Australia, it’s little surprise the 42-year-old is heading home for a few weeks before returning to play again on the tour. Scott announced on Sunday that he’ll next compete in the Genesis Invitational in mid-February.

When Scott revealed his schedule, there was a natural follow question to be asked: Why wait until Riviera — where Scott has one win, one unofficial win (tournament was only 36 holes), two seconds and seven top-10s in 14 starts — and not come back a week earlier to compete in the WM Phoenix Open, the next of the tour’s 13 “designated” events with a $20 million purse?

That’s when Scott owned up to a bit of carelessness.

“Well, I don’t have a good reason for you,” Scott said. “The embarrassing reason is I actually thought it went Phoenix, Pebble, LA, so I didn’t even consider it from the beginning.”

Because the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (February 2-5) was an event he wasn’t going to play, Scott figured he would skip Phoenix to spend the extra week Down Under. At some point, he learned that Pebble is actually before Phoenix (February 9-12), but at that point his plans were set.

The mishap could obviously cost Scott in the wallet, but the bigger issue perhaps is that the 14-time tour winner will have used up his one “excused absence” for a designated event in order to remain eligible to qualify for the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program. Despite that, Scott is content to keep his schedule as is.

“Yeah, I think spending a little time at home in Australia seems too good for me after two and a half years of not going home,” Scott said, “so an extra week is nice.”

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Scott, who finished 29th in the 39-man field to earn $210,000 and become just the seventh golfer to cross the $60 million mark in career PGA Tour earnings, had an interesting idea when asked about how prize money on tour is allocated ahead of this week’s Sony Open. Traditionally, the PGA Tour awards 18 per cent of the total purse to the winner, with second place receiving about 11 per cent, third place seven per cent, and so on.

But considering just how hard it is to win in pro golf these days with such deep competition (just ask Collin Morikawa!), Scott wouldn’t be opposed to increasing that 18 per cent figure. By a LOT.

“It’s a fine question to put forward. I mean, potentially you could have weighted the win and not put purses up, you know what I mean? You could give them 40 per cent,” Scott said. “Leave the purse the same size, but give the winner 40 per cent of the total purse and cut everybody else and look for — reward excellence in a week.”

FORTY percent? That would have taken Rahm’s $2.7 million payout from the $15 million purse to $6 million. Then again, Scott is also saying that just paying out more to the winner could have been an alternative to increasing the purses. Of course, the tour also felt the need to raise purses in part to combat players leaving for LIV Golf. And, in turn, the intention wasn’t just to reward winners but reward all players competing on the PGA Tour with additional financial incentives.

Indeed, Scott realises that going too far in this direction could leave other players unhappy.

“I mean, I’m perfectly fine to have those kind of conversations and look at things a different way, but you might also get to the point where the top 10 players feel that’s not — finishing eighth is not worth $36 or whatever that leaves,” Scott continued. “You know what I mean?”

Yes, Adam, we do. We’re guessing a lot of people — heck, there were a record 126 golfers earning more than $1 million on tour last year — are happy with the payment structure.

“I think what all of this is showing is like the traditional structures that we’ve had in pro golf, it’s probably time for a change,” Scott, a 14-time PGA Tour winner, added. “And there has to be different ways to look at it.”

Fair enough. There have been some changes to traditional payment structures at both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour season finales. Rory McIlroy received 24 per cent of the $75 million up for grabs at the 2022 Tour Championship, and Lydia Ko took home roughly 30 per cent of the $7 million pot a last year’s CME Group Tour Championship.

Later on Tuesday, Jordan Spieth backed up Scott’s thoughts about possibly rewarding winning more. Well, to an extent.

“If that percentage were to go up a couple points, I wouldn’t be opposed to that at all,” Spieth said. “If it aligned with [the] World Ranking system that got adjusted to a strokes-gained system, where somehow things got aligned in what could be changed going forward on the World Ranking, then maybe that would be the best way to do it.”

Sounds like something to take to the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council. In the meantime, winners are going to have to “settle” for 18 per cent.

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