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SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPEN

October 2, 2019

Adam Scott

Las Vegas, Nevada

THE MODERATOR: Welcome Adam Scott into the interview room making his first-ever start at Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Adam, welcome. Get some comments on being here in Las Vegas this week.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it's incredible really that it's my first start here. It's really fun to be back. Obviously a lot of memories here in Las Vegas from 20 years ago, and then I spent a lot time here after UNLV working with Butch Harmon, who's still based here.

So I know the golf course fairly well, know the place fairly well. It was exciting flying in to touch down. I haven't been here ever since 2009 actually. Fun to be back.

THE MODERATOR: Talk about your goals for this season and your start last week in Napa.

ADAM SCOTT: Really to continue on where I ended last season. Things were in a pretty good spot and I felt like my game was close every week to having a chance of winning, and I didn't last season.

But I've had these kind of stretches in the past, and I feel it's very similar to a time back in 2012 where I played well all year and didn't win, but I kept the intensity up and kept playing. Eventually broke through and led on to a really good run for me in 2013 and '14 and so forth.

I wanted get back out pretty quick after the end of last season. A break was needed. Got four weeks and then started in Napa. It was a bit of a mixed bag. There were two good days and two horrible days for me in Napa.

Hopefully that was some of rust being shaken off. Looking at the positives, there was two really solid rounds, so I would like to build on that this week and put myself in with a chance to win.

THE MODERATOR: Open up to questions.

Q. You played with current Rebel, Jack Trent yesterday, practice round. What's the first thing that comes to your mind about that round, and what are your thoughts about his game and future?
ADAM SCOTT: The first thing is really turning back the clock, I guess. I mean, Jack as a junior at UNLV, seeing Dwaine Knight, the coach, out there yesterday, I wasn't exactly in Jack's shoes because I never played this event while I was at UNLV, but brought back a lot of memories for sure.

Even just thinking about when I did play some professional events as an amateur what that was like. Getting to play a practice round with someone you've looked up to is a great experience. I tried not to get in his way too much. I don't know his game and I don't know him that well, so I was just observing a lot.

He's a big, strong kid, like every kid who comes on tour seems to be. Hits it a long way. Soon as you get a really good understanding of your own game like that you can really compete at the tour level quite quickly, as we've seen with some the kids out of college last year.

So if he's in this tournament, he's doing a lot of right stuff. He just has to stick at it. I think this week he can have a really solid week.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
ADAM SCOTT: There you go. But I think, you know, a lot of the time just you can learn a lot from observing what happens out there, so hopefully he was staying out of the way but paying attention here and there.

Q. Why is it important for you to give back?
ADAM SCOTT: To Jack you mean?

Q. Yeah. Like you made a point to sound him out. I know you're getting older and what not, but is it a conscious thing? Like you remember the early days for yourself and want to be part of that?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, yeah. I feel I had a lot of really fortunate experiences throughout my whole career. Looking back on it, UNLV was one of the biggest learning curves in my entire life. I was a hot shot junior from Australia and I came to the United States. It was my opportunity get out of Australia early and see what it's really all about.

I dreamt of playing the PGA TOUR. Coming here just felt like a step closer. That was offered to me by UNLV. I came over and was really small fish in a really big pond at that point. Just turned 18.

Yeah, it was one of those kind of moments I had to grow up that first year here. I really struggled with my golf. I was obviously struggling to enjoy it. I never dreamt of going to a university class in my life, and I was taking class. I thought school was done after grade 12. I was back in the classroom.

And, yeah, at the time I really struggled with it. Took me a while it settle down and play some better golf second half of my first year. Looking back on it now, it was probably one the biggest learning curves for me, so I look back on it with strong memories. When the coaches reach out or obviously I know Jack is an Australian playing there, I remember all the good things that it did for me, the foundation kind of times in my life.

Q. I know that you would've, in the small break, you probably weren't watching any golf or anything like that. In the first few weeks we had international players win on tour. These guys are all fighting for captain's picks on the team you'll be part of it. Your take on how it seems as if the guys have really taken to Ernie's challenge, step up if you want to be picked.
ADAM SCOTT: Absolutely it looks like that. Going to make Ernie's job very difficult if this keeps happening and they keep showing form. That's a good thing for our team. I do feel that over the last couple years there has definitely been a shift maybe in some of the old guard or deadwood moving out of the Presidents Cup team.

I don't know how I'm hanging on, but the younger guys certainly have given it kind of a renewed energy and enthusiasm. It's nice to see. You can see after their wins it's on their minds, that that opportunity is now in front of them to be on an international team.

So I think to give Ernie a lot of credit, he's behind the scenes gone about creating a new culture within our international team, so he's done well.

Q. Piggybacking off that, he's talked for a year now about how he wants to create a sense of unity and culture and identity for a team that has perhaps lacked some of that in the past. What can you share that he's done to sort of foster that atmosphere or create something new?
ADAM SCOTT: I guess one of the things was Ernie created our new team logo, which he felt was important that we all kind of understood what we were playing for. It had some meaning to it. So he's kind of created that.

Certainly coming from Ernie it has a lot of meaning from him, but it seems like the younger or newer players on the international team have certainly embraced it a lot more. It's very exciting for them, I think, this opportunity. They're playing for a person they've definitely looked up to in their careers as a hero.

Ernie -- he's not 50. He's kind of relevant to these guys. They know him and have watched him play through his prime. There are a lot of little things happening that probably I think will make a big difference at the end of the day.

It doesn't sound like a big thing, but it's lots of little things like that.

Q. What does that mean to a veteran like you that has been around this team for a number of years?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, it's very important to me. I'm not going to sit up here and say I've had all the answers because I've been a part of this for many years now. We haven't had a winning formula.

I like the fact that we're changing things, because what we had been doing hadn't been working clearly. I think if you take the European team over the past period of time and how professionally they've gone about preparing, and then when that success against the Americans in the Ryder Cup, the American team create a task force and all of a sudden became much more prepared themselves, and their team play has certainly elevated since that's happened, too.

So we weren't doing any or enough of that. I think now we're putting together some kind of program that can at least unite the team, but certainly give us a much better platform going into these matches than we had in the past, which seemed very random to me.

Q. When you last competed in Las Vegas 20 years ago the city was in the middle of transforming itself. As you see how the city as evolved into a burgeoning sports city, what are your impressions?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, it's certainly grown a lot even in ten years since I've been here. I have the opportunity to go to the hockey tonight. From having friends here still I know how much Las Vegas has gotten into that. A lot of my friends go to the hockey all the time and have a great time.

The Raiders, I've driven past the stadium being built right there. It's fantastic of course. Some UNLV basketball is always fun as well. Put that with a PGA TOUR event -- I'm sure I'm leaving lots of stuff out -- but it really is a great destination, even without The Strip.

It kind of complements everyone having a really good time here.

Q. You came to Las Vegas to the University two years after Tiger's win here. Did you hear any story in the university or from the coach our do you remember anything of that win?
ADAM SCOTT: I obviously remember the win because it was a big deal in the world of golf. I think interestingly at that time when I came into school, Tiger was training with a trainer in Las Vegas, so he was here - I wouldn't say often - but in and out throughout the year. There were Tiger sightings at Shadow Creek playing golf or he was at the gym where we were training.

My memories of that was how cool it was to be in this area near where Tiger was. You know, that you would even be at same gym as the guy. The whole Tiger show was really in full force in the late '90s there, and I felt I was just incredibly lucky to have assess to kind of some of the same facilities.

But as far as hearing about exactly what he did here, I just remember there being a general buzz anywhere Tiger was.

Q. Is my memory wrong? Didn't Butch give you a match against him or something?
ADAM SCOTT: It was a bit after I was at school. Yeah. Bit after I was at school, but it was here in Las Vegas.

Q. Can you run us through the story of that, how that went down.
ADAM SCOTT: I had decided to turn pro and kind of got Butch's blessing to do that because he was coaching me at the time. We talked about it and he felt strongly that I should go and play in Europe first and gain some experience.

Anyway, I was here in Las Vegas and Tiger was working with Butch and he was stopping in on the way to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open in 2000. It was the Sunday before the week of the U.S. Open.

Butch said to me on Saturday, Tiger is coming in. If he goes and plays, you can play with him. So I was nervous of course. We went out and played and we had a match, and I think I was maybe 1-down through the turn at Rio Secco, and then Tiger stepped it up and birdie, birdie, birdie and eagles and stuff.

Actually double bogeyed the 9th hole. He closed me out on the 14th, but he double bogeyed the 9th for 63, and I was a bit blown away by what I saw. It was quite windy and I thought I played quite well. Probably shot about even par and I was nine off the pace. I made probably a throw-away comment to Butch, something like, Maybe I should reconsider turning pro?

The only thing that made me feel good was he won the U.S. Open by 15 the next week, so I was quite happy to see that no one else really played like that. (Laughter.)

Q. You talked about UNLV and the coaching, Dwaine Knight being a foundation for you. What's the biggest thing you learned there?
ADAM SCOTT: Wow. It sounds funny, but I was a child when I came here, so probably that you just don't get things your own way all the time. Things get tough; you got to get tough. Not in a nasty way at all, but Dwaine was kind of in charge of 12 or 14 kids and he had to be a bit tough. As a parent on a different level, I mean, I know looking after two kids you got to be tough. But he had 14 to control and he had to be tough.

And even though we may not have seen eye to eye, he stood his ground and I think it toughened me up a bit being here. So that was a great kind of lesson for me to carry forward.

THE MODERATOR: Adam Scott, thank you, sir.

ADAM SCOTT: Thank you.

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