ADAM & STEVE
Re-pairing with Tiger’s ex-caddie has Scott on track at Old Course
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Tiger Woods isn’t going to win the British Open but his game plan might. With a chip on his shoulder and Steve Williams on his bag, Adam Scott hopes to assuage the bitter memory of Royal Lytham in 2012 by implementing the strategy Woods and Williams used during Tiger’s runaway wins over the Old Course in 2000 and 2005.
They were an intimidating duo back in their heyday, and after their acrimonious parting, Williams brought some of that intensity when he began working for the Aussie in 2011. Caddies can be given too much credit, but there is no doubt Scott has played the best golf of his career with Williams pushing him.
Williams went into self-retirement following the 2014 season and Scott went into a tailspin without him. They reunited for the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where Scott came alive. A superb 64 in the final round lifted him into a fourth-place finish. Now he’s three shots behind leader Dustin Johnson at St. Andrews after a bogey-free, second-round 67.
“We obviously had a few long chats before he came and caddied for me at the U.S. Open. I was begging and pleading for him to come out there. Unfortunately I have to admit that,” Scott said. “But I think we hit our stride straight away. Obviously he lays it on the table for you, and you have to like it or not. That’s worked really well, and he certainly knows how to get the best out of me on the golf course, and that was our goal for these few weeks that he’s going to caddie, and so far we’re doing a pretty good job.”
Williams, who is caddying in his seventh Open at St. Andrews, basically plays the percentages based on his knowledge of the winds.
“The biggest key for anybody is you have to take advantage of the holes when you can take advantage of them and when you are playing the holes that are difficult in the cross winds, you have to play conservative,” he said in an interview with the Australian AP.
“You have to have the conservative outlook at the right time but also the aggressive outlook at the right times. When something is on, you have to have a crack.”
That paid off Friday on No. 17, the infamous Road Hole, where Scott had 176 yards to the front. He fearlessly took a sawed-off swing with a 4-iron that was still able to penetrate the wind and bounce on the green after landing about 15 yards short.
Then on 18, Scott took an aggressive line off the tee and nearly drove the green. He finished the day with his fifth birdie.
“We’ve been probably in more discussion here for two days than we normally are at any other course,” Scott said. “It’s one of his great attributes is he gets a great feel for the moment and a feel for the shots, and he’s obviously seen a lot of great shots around here and other places. Just to be clear that I’m not going to hit the wrong shot, we discuss it a little more because it is crucial out here.”
Perhaps Williams’ and Scott’s worst moment as a team came at Lytham three years ago. Scott had a hand on the claret jug before he bogeyed the last four holes, handing it to Ernie Els. His decision to hit 3-wood (into a bunker) off the 18th tee was fatal and there was talk afterward about whether Williams had given up on him or Scott had told him to back off and give him room.
Williams, who was with Woods for 13 major wins, called Scott’s breakthrough win at the Masters the following year the highlight of his career. But Scott still believes he has unfinished business with this one.
“I’m very motivated,” he said. “I definitely let that one slip, and I would love to be sitting here having won the Open, but I’m going to have to work hard for it. I’ve had a couple good looks at it since then. I played really well last year and was just too far behind, and then at Muirfield (in 2013) I was leading on the back nine, and (Phil) Mickelson finished great and I didn’t. You know, I think I’m playing with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder.”
Williams helps keep it there, although when Scott was asked if he’d be in his current spot on the leaderboard without him, he hesitated.
“I’d like to think so for my own sake, but it was the right call for me to make,” he said. “He’s a huge factor in the way I’ve played the last few years. I have to absolutely give him a lot of credit for that.” And a pay raise? “He’s got plenty, mate,” Scott said. “He doesn’t need it.”