Scott ponders Tokyo tilt
ADAM Scott says he will soak up the Aloha vibes at one of the US PGA Tour’s most relaxing tournaments before embarking on the most challenging season of his stellar golf career.
COVID- 19 travel restrictions will make globetrotting Scott’s schedule an uphill battle this year, given he and his family are based in Switzerland and his swing coach lives in the UK.
They all travel to the US for weeks at a time to compete on golf’s richest circuit.
“Even just getting here to Hawaii ( from Switzerland), the parameters changed like three times in the weeks leading up to coming,” Scott said from the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Wednesday.
Scott is eligible for the nocut Maui tournament, which begins tomorrow at Kapalua’s stunning Plantation course, courtesy of his 14th US PGA Tour win last season.
Still, the hugely popular former world No. 1 will try to squeeze in a reluctant first appearance at the Olympics in Japan in July, in between his quest for a second career major championship.
He’s desperate to add at least one to his historic 2013 Masters win at Augusta. Scott had previously been vehemently against golf’s return to the Olympics when it was reintroduced in 2016. His focus has always been on golf’s four majors and believed the Olympics should celebrate amateur golf, if at all.
He remains indifferent, but Japan being a golf- mad nation is a motivation. So is the fact he turned 40 last year, meaning the postponed Games could be his last chance to bag an Olympic medal. At world No. 21, the top- ranked Australian, Scott would join No. 27 Cameron Smith as the nation’s men’s golf team if it was decided now.
“I would consider playing; it's still not my priority for the year, that’s for sure,” Scott said. “But I wouldn’t rule it out because you can never really say never.
“It will certainly be something I'll look at.”
But they are all decisions for a later. For now, Scott will enjoy his first appearance at the Maui event since 2014, when he tied sixth. An avid surfer and close friend of that sport’s icon Kelly Slater, Scott admits he will take advantage of Maui’s surf this week.
Scott is hungry to continue the second wind of his already brilliant career. Momentum was crippled by golf’s 90- day shutdown in 2020, only weeks after he had broken droughts of several years by winning the Australian PGA Championship in December 2019 and the Tiger Woodshosted Genesis Invitational on the US PGA Tour in February. He is also determined to become Australia’s first multiple major winner since Greg Norman in the 1990s. Scott has a bad taste in his mouth from last year’s results on the biggest stage. His best finish at the three rescheduled majors was a tie for 22nd.
“Five? I made the cut,” Scott joked when asked to mark his majors performance out of 10 last year.