DORAL, Fla. — Adam Scott, by his own admission, was on cruise control since his victory at the Honda Classic on Sunday.
When he eagled his first hole of Thursday’s WGC-Cadillac opening round, taking a 3 on the par-5 10th hole, Scott must have thought this was going to be easy. Until he followed that with bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12 and said to himself he needed to snap out of it.
“I took it real easy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and didn’t really turn the mind on at all,’’ Scott said. “I was trying to enjoy what happened last week and save some energy for this week. [I] didn’t switch on at all. I just kind of went on autopilot and hit two good shots up [No. 10] and knocked a putt in and didn’t even think about it.
“Then, once I faced a couple tougher shots, made a bit of a meal of them [and] quickly realized on the 13th tee that if that’s how I’m going to play, I’m probably going to shoot over par today, so I had to sharpen up a bit.’’
So he did. Scott shot a 4-under-par 68 to stand just two shots off the lead entering Friday’s second round at Trump Doral.
“There’s a huge sense of satisfaction for me winning last week, and it would be pretty easy for me to go and sit at home for a week and feel good about myself,’’ Scott said. “But this is such a huge event and I’m playing so good, you couldn’t script coming in here any better. So I just have to kind of flick that switch and almost erase the last couple of weeks and get back at it and want to win as bad as ever.’’
Scott said, after his “great start,’’ he “just fell asleep for a couple of holes [and] had to wake up and get things back going again.’’
“So,’’ he said, “I’m pleased to take advantage of another good day on the golf course, especially finishing birdie, birdie [on Nos. 8 and 9]. I feel good about that. A 68 around here is a good score.’’
Scott said it’s hard to reenergize after a big win.
“Mentally is the hardest thing, trying to take yourself back up to that level of intensity,” he said. “Because you don’t win every week, you push so hard to finally get one and there’s a big crash in a lot of ways. To be able to lift yourself back up and have that hunger and intensity like it was the previous weeks is something that I have to focus on.’’
Australian Jordan Zunic, profiled in The Post on Wednesday, shot a 3-over-par 75 in his first World Golf Championship experience. Zunic, who turned pro last year and is ranked 530th in the world, bettered his fellow Aussie from the Australasian Tour, Nathan Holman, who shot 82.
Defending champion Dustin Johnson is tied for 28th after shooting even-par 72.