palmer

Adam Scott

I’ve now been playing golf for about three and a half or four years. I’ve learned a lot about golf in that time. If you want to get good enough to go out on Saturdays and Sundays and play with your friends, it takes a little bit of practice and some dedication, but almost anybody can hit this level of proficiency with full time and effort. On the other hand, if you want to be great at golf, you have to understand that the game is extremely difficult and challenging. You can hit a perfect 150-yard shot that lands just to the right of a mound and careens into the water. You can have that exact same shot and it lands a foot to the left, the ball snuggles up nicely right next to the hole. That is golf. The difference between hitting a great shot and an okay shot is not much.

This brings me to Adam Scott. Adam Scott is one of those golfers that almost everyone likes. He has a picture-perfect swing. He seems to be a nice guy. He seems to work hard. A couple of years ago, Adam Scott was closing in on his first British Open when he had an epic meltdown. In golf, there are no teammates to point to. It is just you and your golf ball. The clubs probably aren’t the problem, since they are the exact same clubs you are using as when you started the round. Last year, at the Masters, everybody was waiting for Adam Scott to have another meltdown. It didn’t happen. He played flawlessly down the stretch. He was rewarded with his first green jacket.

Before the Arnold Palmer Invitational, perennial favorite Tiger Woods pulled out because of back issues. This left the field wide open. Adam Scott shot a 62 and tied the course record on Thursday. On Friday, he continued to play extremely well. He was driving well. He was hitting fabulous iron shots and putting very well. At some point on Thursday or Friday, Adam Scott was leading this tournament by seven or eight strokes. On Saturday, things didn’t go so well. His iron shots were not as crisp and he wasn’t hitting them as close to the hole. His putter had completely failed him. The smooth silky stroke that he had just 48 hours earlier was completely gone. On Sunday, Adam Scott’s game just simply fell apart. He shot four over par. Had he shot even par he would’ve won the tournament. (more…)