AUGUSTA, Ga. — Adam Scott was walking from the 11th green to the famed 12th tee at Augusta National on Thursday and was humbled by the ovation he received. The roughly 3,000 or so patrons who congregate at Amen Corner all stood in unison to applaud the arrival of the defending Masters champion.
“The memory that will stick with me forever today was walking up to the 12th tee and everyone getting out of their seats as I approached there,” Scott said. “It was great.”
Then he took a 9-iron out of his bag thinking it was enough to get to the back right pin, some 158 yards over Rae’s Creek. But part of him was still basking in the applause and the serene setting of sun-splashed skies and little wind. The fans were ready to cheer the type of majestic shot Scott made repeatedly in 2013 to win his first major. Instead, “I went and hit it in the water.”
Buzzkill.
“I just lost a little focus on that shot and didn’t commit fully to it and you paid the price on that one,” Scott said.
He would double bogey the hole, the only poor shot on an otherwise solid 3-under par 69 that left him one shot off Bill Haas’ lead heading into Friday’s second round. Scott’s score could have been lower had he not gone into the water on 12 and three-putted the two par-5s at the 13th and 15th. But he made par with two putts from just off the green at the 18th to finish a stroke under 70.
“I was very happy with the way I played today tee-to-green,” Scott said. “It was really how you hope to come out and play at any major.”
It’s not so much Scott’s score, but his confidence that makes you believe he has a chance to join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the only players to win back-to-back Masters. Scott feels as if he now belongs after all the expectations heaped on him when he joined the PGA Tour in 2002 with his Aussie accent, good looks and Tiger Woods-copied swing.
He won plenty of tournaments, including the 2004 Players Championship, the 2006 Tour Championship, and the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational. But he blew a four-stroke lead with four holes to play at the 2012 British Open, leaving him without a major until he beat Angel Cabrera in a playoff for the green jacket last year.
Now he is part of golf royalty, having planned the Champions Dinner here on Tuesday, when he rubbed elbows with golf’s greats such as Arnold Palmer, Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw.
“To sit next to Ben Crenshaw up at the head table, I could have asked a million questions, but I didn’t want to be annoying to Ben,” he said.
You would have thought Scott has won a dozen majors the way he walked around Augusta National, as if he owned the place. He was relaxed, confident and smiling from ear-to-ear. He chatted easily with his 19-year-old playing partner, Matthew Fitzpatrick, the U.S. Amateur champion from England, and offered words of encouragement to his other playing partner, Jason Dufner, the 2013 PGA
Champion, who ruined his Masters with a quadruple-bogey 9 at the par-5 13th.
Some players are not at their best if they get too relaxed, but the green jacket is a comfortable fit for Scott.
“Having won last year, I think in some ways has taken a little pressure off me as I teed up today,” he said. “[I] kind of felt like, What was the worst that can happen? I’m still going to be Masters champion.”
Any real thought of winning back-to-back Masters will have to wait until Sunday. He has to hit at least three more balls over Rae’s Creek.