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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 10, 2011Adam ScottPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Adam Scott into the interview room, 2004 PLAYERS Champion, making his tenth start here. Thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Obviously a close call there at Augusta, some great play of late. Just get your comments looking back at that week and also your year as a whole. ADAM SCOTT: Well, Augusta was obviously a great week. It was really nice to be in the mix late on Sunday afternoon, and it was nice to play well in that situation. You know, and I felt I did everything I could, and I was outplayed at the end. Charl finished spectacularly and with something that we've never seen before to finish the Masters. So hat's off to him. It's an incredible way to win a golf tournament. But still, from that I just can take positives out of that in how I performed late on Sunday. I was very happy with that. And the year as a whole has been fine, I guess. You know, really, I played well at the World Golf Championship in Miami, and to play well in the Masters. They're the ones you want to play well in. So far I am happy with that, and here's another week I really want to play well at, so we'll see what happens. JOHN BUSH: And a week that you've obviously played well here before. Talk about this golf course and how it sets up for you. ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I have great feelings about this golf course. 2004 is certainly a highlight of my career, and although it's very different now to then, we all know the difference. It's still great memories and great feelings coming and playing here. It's one of the most fun atmospheres of the year that we play in. I think the fans come out in full force this week, and they have a good time. They enjoy the golf and they enjoy the risk and reward. And obviously the 17th hole is a lot of fun for them to watch, so it makes it a good atmosphere for us to play in. I think you can feed off that a little bit, especially if you're playing well, so I enjoy that here. Q. Since you're talking about the course, we're streaming live from a couple holes this week. One of them is 17 with the island green. What's your strategy on that hole and how different is it under tournament conditions with the pressure and the atmosphere? ADAM SCOTT: Well, the strategy on 17 is pretty much to hit it at the middle of the green except when the pin is down in the front left. You just have to man up and go for that pin. But you don't really want to get greedy. If you start going at pins too much, the area on the green is so small, it's easy to make a mistake, and a mistake is costly because a mistake is water. That's the extreme penalty. So you just pick -- you find that number over the left half of that bunker, on the left edge of that bunker. To hit it right there every day would be a great result, and if you can make a putt, if you get out of there with a 2 or a 3 it's a good score. Q. And what about the other par-3 on the back, the 13th. Can you describe that hole from the tee and tell us whether or not it's a birdie opportunity? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think the 13th is a very difficult hole now. The greens are much firmer than they used to be, and it's very hard to get it close to a pin really in any part of that green, whether it's back right, front right or down on the left, just because of the firmness of the green now. So it's a hole standing on the tee that you'd like to hit the green, but then you're still going to have to work hard for a two-putt par. I think it's one of those sneaky tough holes that can jump up and get you if you're not careful. Q. This will be the fifth year this tournament has been in May. Do you like the way the course plays in May and opposed to March? Does it really matter one way or another? ADAM SCOTT: In my personal opinion, I don't think they've got the setup quite right yet for the May date. With the different grass, I'd like to see them set it up a little differently than they do. But I don't think it matters. I think it can play -- I think this is one of the best Tournament golf courses in the world, that's for sure. It's an incredible golf course. You know, it played really nicely with the long rough back in the March date. I think I'd like to see the rough cut down a lot more with the different grass here, get the ball running through in runoff areas, into fairway and into trees, and we could do away with the thick rough. Q. Do you always enjoy playing when it's hotter rather than colder? ADAM SCOTT: Oh, yeah, I'd rather be hot than cold. Q. Do you think that's -- obviously the weather, no more Monday finishes here as we used to have a lot of times, so that in itself, is it kind of a comfort to players knowing that chances are you're going to be able to finish on Sunday at this time of year? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I mean, I guess logistically it's good for the tournament that that's happening, get it done on Sunday for sure. But I mean, as a player, it doesn't matter whether we -- I don't mind if we finish on Tuesday. If I've got a chance to win, I'm going to be here on Tuesday. I don't mind. I don't really think about that. But I'm sure for TV and the TOUR, they love seeing the good weather here, and it just helps the tournament in every way most likely. Q. Do you feel because you won the tournament, this tournament in the past, do you feel like you have an advantage over maybe some people who haven't had much success on the course? ADAM SCOTT: I guess. It's always a good feeling coming back to somewhere where you've won, just simply because you know you can get it done. I don't know, it was seven or eight years ago now, so I'd have to think pretty hard to channel that good energy from then. But I feel very comfortable at this golf course. I think I've had fairly strong showings here since then, as well. I just haven't quite put it all together like that year. But yeah, maybe -- especially with the way the finishing holes are, just to know you can get it done is a question you don't have to ask yourself, if I were to be in that position again. Q. If you could just kind of mentally plot your way around, what clubs do you hit off the tee here? Because I hear it's everything from middle or long irons to 3-woods to maybe hybrids and hardly any drivers. Starting with No. 1, can you sort of run me through the -- ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I mean, it's really playing a lot -- although they've lengthened it a lot, it plays shorter because it's so dry. There aren't many drivers. It doesn't give you the -- it's risky to hit driver because it gets in fairly narrow areas. To run a 3-wood out there, hybrids off the tees, there aren't that many irons, but you could. It depends on your strategy and how you want to play the golf course. Q. Strategy? There's still strategy? ADAM SCOTT: Well, yeah, I know, you say that. If you like hitting longer clubs in, you can hit irons off the tee, I guess. It's a lot of 3-woods I would say overall. I seem to hit a lot of 3-woods. Q. Did you get a chance to play with Seve or meet him or any memorable experiences? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah. He was playing still full-time in Europe when I first turned professional, and I played with him a couple times only over there. I watched him practice a lot. He practiced a lot, even later in his career. He worked very hard. I have great memories of watching him around a chipping green at The K Club in Europe or in Ireland at the European Open one year, and I just remember standing back and watching him there. Just incredible talent. It's obviously sad for golf, but great we got to celebrate what he did for the game. Q. You went straight to San Antonio and defended after Augusta, but you and Luke have both kind of gotten to that point where you're pointing towards the majors. What's the difference when you come off of a close call at Augusta and then you come to a big tournament like this, and then in a few more weeks you're going to be at the U.S. Open? What's the difference in the mindset and how you approach things at this point in your career or is there? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, you know, that's a really accurate judgment. I mean, I think for me, I've had a good career, but I certainly haven't performed how I would have liked in the biggest tournaments, and I'll say the World Golf Championships and the majors, with the exception of this tournament. So, I mean, I feel for me to kind of complete my career I certainly want to lift my game in those events and hopefully win majors and World Golf Championships. So certainly I think I need to put a focus more on them. I feel like I can do that a bit because I've certainly proven to myself that I can win tournaments. You know, I've won over here a fair bit. I've won a lot around the world. But I need to somehow find -- bring a better game into the majors and I think better preparation will do that. Taking three weeks off before the Masters certainly didn't hurt me. It gave me time to put in enough hours to get everything where I needed it to be. And as soon as the gun went off Thursday, the competitive fire is there because three weeks without competing is not normal for most golfers. We play a lot, and you're ready to go. But I think my preparation was great for the Masters, and that's kind of what I've followed on with that the last few weeks coming in here. Certainly focused on the bigger events this year. Q. Have you and Luke talked about it at all, about the Masters? Have y'all seen each other and kind of visited about it? ADAM SCOTT: I haven't seen him, but I saw him before the Masters, and we both talked about taking three weeks off beforehand, and I think we both kind of -- we didn't even need to talk about it. We both knew what kind of program we were on. We all know each other fairly well in that respect, and he probably feels similar to me. You know, he's at a point where he's playing some of the best golf of his career, and he probably wants to take advantage of that by giving himself a chance to win majors. Q. Bubba Watson was in here a little bit ago, and he said that he struggles with how the course fits his eye off the tee, and his solution is he's not going to play any practice rounds because he says the less he sees of the course the better. Is that just Bubba thinking the way Bubba thinks? Would you ever consider playing a big tournament without playing a practice round? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I don't have a problem with that at all. Tim Clark doesn't play many practice rounds, except he seems to show up on Sundays of big tournaments a fair bit, and he doesn't play practice rounds. Maybe nine holes. I think that's a good thing. Practice rounds are a funny thing, and Bubba shapes the ball a lot, so that can be tricky at some courses. I don't have a problem with that at all. I think it's not bad going straight out there fresh as long as your caddie has done his homework. (Laughter.) Q. You had some ebb and flow in your momentum over the last couple, three years. I'm just kind of curious as to when you felt this good about the whole package, where you are right now, almost winning that thing at Augusta and got it headed back the right way. Seems like you've got all 14 clubs working the way they're supposed to work. ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think it was good last year, but my short game wasn't quite at the level where it was helping the rest of the game. So my long game didn't look as good as it really was last year. But certainly since January coming home from Hawai'i this year, my short game has certainly stepped up a level and it's complementing what I've done on my long game. Everything feels in good shape. I think I feel as complete a player as I ever have all around. I think everything is in as good a place as it can be, and from here it's just a matter of continuing to push myself to get better and better because I think there's room for improvement everywhere. I'm certainly not dominating golf, so I need to keep pushing myself and try and keep moving in a forward direction with it all. But I'm on a good track right now. I feel very happy about where it's all at. Q. A fun question: On the 17th hole when the caddies have their contest, what do you usually hit at 17 and what does your caddie hit at 17? Does Tony do that? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, he does. He's been unsuccessful the last few years. He's been hitting an 8-iron, and I've been asking him for about three years to hit at least a 7 and maybe a 6, because short doesn't work. Short is no good. I don't know. I guess we hit a 9-iron, and Tony has been hitting an 8. But I might just do the caddie move and pull everyone aside and give him a 7 this year. JOHN BUSH: Adam, we appreciate your time. Play well this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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