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THE BARCLAYS

August 24, 2016

Adam Scott

Farmingdale, New York

MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome Adam Scott from Australia into the media center at The Barclays this year for the FedExCup Playoffs.

Adam, you're No. 3 currently in the standings, and you did lead for a number of weeks after a couple of victories earlier in the year. So you're in pretty good shape and you're a past winner of The Barclays back in 2013, I think it was. If you could just talk about your expectations coming into this week and the Playoffs this season.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I'm hoping to play a little better than I have the last three months and have a little run like I did earlier in the year and finish the year off really well and have a shot at winning the FedExCup.

I've put myself in a great position that if I play well the next few weeks, hopefully I can be in that top five going into Atlanta. That's obviously important. Then it's kind of all up to me whether I can win it from there.

But it's nice to be in this position. I'm hitting it well. I have all year. I just haven't putted as well as I did at the start of the year the last few months since the Masters, and it's pretty much as simple as that. So I'm looking to putt a bit better. I've been working at it.

MARK WILLIAMS: Your impressions of the course? You had a look at it in Pro-Am. You played here in 2009 in the U.S. Open. Is it different or the same still?

ADAM SCOTT: I think it's pretty much what I remember. I don't think there's many big changes out there. There may be a bunker gone on the 14th hole, but that's about it. It's obviously in good shape. The weather's nice. The greens are a little soft but that can happen. I think there was some heat the last few weeks and they need to keep them wet so they survive. But it's in great shape.

It's a pleasure to play this golf course. I feel it sets up well for me, so I'm looking for some good stuff.

Q. Did you have a chance to win this thing with Henrik and got sick on Saturday morning; is that correct?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, back in 2013, yes.

Q. Is it different, must be different, than a major when you get your first kind of decent sniff at it, and you wonder if you're going to get more chances, and there's less of a guarantee on this one, I would think. That wasn't a question, but if you could turn it into one and answer it, that would be fabulous.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it was pretty disappointing to feel so ill that Saturday for sure, because I was in that position I talked about just before, being in the top five. Henrik and I were playing very well. I think I did well just to play that day after a couple bags of fluid in the morning on the drip.

So it was a pretty big letdown because it was a great year for me, winning the Masters and winning The Barclays. It would have been amazing to sweep through and win the FedExCup. But it didn't happen. It hasn't really looked like it since, either.

I'd like to try and take advantage of it this year.

Q. What have you been doing the last three weeks, and were the Olympics on your TV schedule at all?
ADAM SCOTT: I was in Europe for the whole three weeks, and I took some time away from golf after the PGA, which was nice, and then got back into it. But the TV schedule over there for golf, for the Olympics, was not great because of the time change, and most stuff seemed to come on at one in the morning when I was sleeping.

It was a little disappointing; I didn't get to watch much of any Olympics at all.

Q. You've been pretty consistent with your viewpoint on amateurs being the ones who should play in the Olympics and they would view that as the pinnacle of their sport. If you look at other sports, like the NBA, when they first had professionals in '92, they had about 20 international players and now they have a hundred; if you could see the argument of why having professionals long term could help foster more growth?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I guess it depends how you see growth: There's more players in the Olympics or there's more players around the world.

I mean, if you look at Australia, it has not really grown basketball. Our league was probably bigger then than it is now. I mean, some of these things are what sports are popular in what countries and what the cultures are.

Golf can be popular everywhere; it's just how many people will play it. I still believe that in the long term, I think it would be very easy to make it a very big deal for golf and the growth with amateurs playing the Olympics. I think it's very hard for the professionals to fit in the Olympic system at the moment, unless a lot of events are willing to sacrifice a lot.

Q. Where do you put yourself in the Player of the Year race, the two wins early, and what kind of run do you feel like you need to go on here to have any consideration?
ADAM SCOTT: I probably have to win at least two events in the FedExCup to be in the question I think. Yeah, I'd have to win more events than anyone else.

Q. Who would get your vote at the moment?
ADAM SCOTT: DJ. Is he the popular answer? (Laughter).

Q. We're ten years into this FedExCup now. How would you assess it now compared with ten years ago?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I think it's settled down certainly the last five years. It's probably understood by most now, which is good. It's quite clear what you have to do as a player in it.

I think it's been a great thing for FedEx and the PGA TOUR now. It's very much associated with the PGA TOUR, and I think that's a positive.

Hopefully it continues moving forward and keeps creating the excitement that we feel the game needs, certainly at this end of the year past the major championships.

Q. You talked about the rest that you had and whatnot. Is it fair to say you've sort of hit a reset button, ready to go into this situation? As you say, you started really well, sort of didn't really have I think one Top-10 since the wins. What is it that you feel you can change to turn it around?
ADAM SCOTT: I think once the majors finished and you haven't won, or even if you have won, there's always kind of an assessment. After the PGA, it's assessment time, how was it; how did you go at the events you most wanted to do, and I didn't do well enough.

Having a quick look at stats, I didn't have to look very hard: My putting was not good enough. It was at least one worse than average at almost every major. If I'm about half better than average, then I'm close to winning all the time with my ball-striking.

So, okay, that's good. It's a pretty simple fix. I don't have to look too much into it. Of course I can get better at everything, but there's a clear way to improve there, and it was only recently I was putting at a really good standard. I've just worked on that and that's given me something fresh and new to go into these last four events with. I'm looking forward to kind of putting it to the test.

Q. You're aware of how well you rank tee-to-green and approach shots; you're I think second place in strokes gained.
ADAM SCOTT: I was actually a bit surprised when I saw that, because when you don't quite have the results, you're critical of everything. I was even thinking, my mid-irons aren't very good, and I looked at that and they are all good. It can drag everything down and sometimes even skew your perspective on how you think you're playing.

So I was pleased to see that. So I quit worrying about my long game and just got stuck into the short game.

Q. Why do you want to win the FedExCup?
ADAM SCOTT: There's a nice list of guys now on this event, and it is our season-long race. That's how the best player of the season is measured and this is something that you'd like to win, like a scoring average. It's like one of those extra things other than just winning a tournament. It proves consistency and the quality of player that you are.

Q. You also get a bobble head?
ADAM SCOTT: And a bobble head, yes.

Q. You didn't mention the money. Does ten million not feel like it did ten years ago?
ADAM SCOTT: With inflation (laughter) no, I'm just kidding. It's a lot of money.

Q. But you didn't mention it.
ADAM SCOTT: No. I try not to play golf thinking about money at all. If I did, and you told me three-foot putts are worth $500,000, I probably wouldn't be able to play. So I try and play golf not thinking about money or having it have any influence on my decisions.

Q. What do you play for?
ADAM SCOTT: I play for enjoyment and the challenge of beating people. I don't get to do it very often because you don't win much, and that's why I keep coming back. Because the feeling of beating people in any sport is nice.

Q. Is there a difference between this three-foot putt is for $500,000 and this three-foot putt is for a trophy?
ADAM SCOTT: The same putt or is it a different putt? (Laughing). Yeah, the thing with the money is, you shouldn't really worry about it, because until your ball is in the hole, you don't have it. It's not yours. It's not like you're losing it, so you shouldn't worry about it.

But I think it definitely does affect decision-making if you think that way. The pressure of putting for a trophy is that pure pressure of achievement, and that's what I've always tried to think about.

Q. If I'm right, I was watching TV last night, Australia in the Little League World Series. Did you play any baseball?
ADAM SCOTT: Funnily enough, I did, actually. Amazing. I played t-ball, first of all, and then I played one year of baseball in Adelaide, yeah.

Q. How did you do?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I was a good t-baller (laughter). Maybe that's why I'm a good driver of the golf ball because it was sitting on a tee.

Yeah, I didn't get far in the baseball. However, I have thrown a pitch out at Fenway and that's kind of my baseball claim to fame. It was pretty good, a pretty good toss down there.

MARK WILLIAMS: Thanks for your time and good luck this week and in the Playoffs.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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