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AT&T NATIONAL

June 30, 2011

Adam Scott

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA

NELSON SILVERIO: We welcome Adam Scott to the interview room here at the AT&T National. Adam, 66 today, fairly good way to start your tournament. Why don't you give us a key to today's round.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, look, I think the key to today's round, I hit a lot of fairways which gave me an opportunity to hit the greens. They're already pretty firm and fast, so it's nice to be coming in from the short grass, and the few fairways I missed, I didn't get myself in too much trouble.
It was kind of a stress-free round, which is a nice way to start.

Q. There have been a lot of comments today about this feeling more like the U.S. Open than the one did a few weeks ago. Your thoughts, please?
ADAM SCOTT: I have to say it's set up very, very nicely here. It's a great golf course obviously, but in great shape. But they've set the course up beautifully. You know, the greens are perfect, and they've got very generous fairways but severe rough, which is a nice balance. There's good scores out there, but you have to play well, I think.
My only comment about the U.S. Open was they obviously didn't get the greens where they really would have liked them, I think. And here I think they've got the greens probably where the U.S. Open would have liked them on a Thursday.

Q. You've had Stevie on the bag now a couple tournaments. Talk about how it's gone so far.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, you know, he's getting there. He's kind of getting the hang of it, yeah, now three rounds in, he might have a future one day, this guy (smiling).
He's been great. It's been fun having him on the bag for a couple weeks. Certainly enjoyed the U.S. Open, although it wasn't the result I was after at all. But you know, I've learned some things off Steve, and he obviously knows how to manage his way around the golf course with all the people that he's caddied for over the years. He's got a wealth of knowledge, and I'm trying to tap as much of that as I can while he's on the bag certainly.

Q. Will he be on the bag for the British?
ADAM SCOTT: I don't know, it completely depends if Tiger is playing or not. But if he's not, then hopefully he can come over to the British.

Q. (No microphone.)
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, you know, he's very confident in himself, but I felt like at the U.S. Open he certainly guided me around that first round very nicely and put me in all the right places and kept it very simple. You know, it seems like he manages himself around the course like a really good golfer would, and that's obviously nice because he understands how to get it around, and generally par is a good score at the U.S. Open and puts you in good spots to make a par. That's what I felt like the first day, even though my score didn't show it because I didn't putt very well. I was never in any trouble, and that was nice for a U.S. Open, too.

Q. Are you playing next week?
ADAM SCOTT: No.

Q. Will you go early? Have you played Royal St. Georges before?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I played the last Open there.

Q. Tell us your thoughts on Royal St. Georges.
ADAM SCOTT: I would say it's a bit of a fiddly golf course. I don't know. The fairways are very undulated, and you're going to get some good bounces and you're going to get some bad bounces. But the thing is I've already heard that there's very little rough there, it's been so hot for the past few months and they've been unable to grow rough. I think it's going to be firm and fast, and although the rough won't be long, if you miss the fairways the fliers and controlling your shots could be tricky out of the wispy, dry grass.
You know, a lot like those old courses that they've built over there. They were built so long ago, and the game has changed so much since they were built, it's kind of -- you've got to just manage yourself around it like all the other great links courses.

Q. I had a couple of questions. Would you call this your favorite links on the rotation?
ADAM SCOTT: Muirfield you mean?

Q. Royal St. Georges.
ADAM SCOTT: It's not my personal favorite, no.

Q. Have you ever met anyone who did say it was their personal favorite?
ADAM SCOTT: I don't really discuss those things with other players (smiling).

Q. Getting to the point, why do you think it causes such hesitation when we're going back to Sandwich? Is it just because of kind of the lunar landscape?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think it's because we're all pretty spoiled, and when we hit it down the middle of the fairway we expect it to be in the middle of the fairway, but that's not how golf works over there. So that's why we're saying these things. But we're all going to have to deal with the same things. I'm going to be pretty fired up to stand on the first tee Thursday and play an Open Championship. I don't care what the course looks like, I just want to win the thing, you know?

Q. When you first went to the long putter, even in practice before you got to a tournament, is your posture then the same as it is now, and if it's not, how many tweaks or adjustments did you go through before you got it just right?
ADAM SCOTT: I haven't consciously changed anything. I feel the same. I don't know if it is.

Q. I'm just curious if when you first grabbed it -- some stand upright, some --
ADAM SCOTT: No, I just found the place I liked and I've stuck with it. I haven't changed the length of the putter or anything. I really haven't changed anything that I first worked on. I'm doing the same stuff now.

Q. Kind of go over your good shots and bad shots.
ADAM SCOTT: Absolutely, I would love to. Would you like the birdies and bogeys or would you like -- okay.
I birdied 3, and I drove it in the fairway and hit a lob wedge in but made maybe a 25-footer.
And then 4, I hit a driver and a 9-iron and made another 25-footer.
And then 6 I hit a driver, lob wedge to about eight feet or six feet maybe and made that.
I bogeyed 10, I missed the fairway to the right and hit it right on the front fringe, and I actually three-putted. I used a putter, but it was on the fringe, from maybe 45 feet away.
14, I hit a 5-iron to two feet.
And 18, I hit a driver and a sand wedge to 15 feet or so.

Q. You played this course in '97 at the Junior Amateur. What do you remember about that and did you remember liking the course then as much as you do now?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely I did. I didn't know much at all about the style of golf courses in the northeast of America back then, so coming here to play was a real treat when I was 17 years old or maybe 16, I don't know.
No, it was a good course. I remember it being a lot more tree-lined back then. There were a lot of trees, I believe, taken out. But I remember a few things from the week. I played with Jason Allred in the stroke play and he ended up winning that tournament. He beat Trevor Immelman in the Match Play, so I've known Trevor since about then. We've known each other a long time.
But yeah, it was a good course back then, too, absolutely. It was probably the toughest course I had ever seen at that point. The USGA, it's like going to a U.S. Open, the U.S. Junior Amateur. They set it up pretty tough. I think I lost early, though. I can't remember playing many rounds here.

Q. As a follow-up to that, now that they have taken all the trees out, how much different does this course play? Would you call it easier or harder or just different?
ADAM SCOTT: I don't know. I hope I've improved a little bit since I was 17. It might be playing a bit easier. I don't know. I think that might be more esthetics rather than playability. I'm not exactly sure what they did. I can't remember specifics. But the way they've got it set up right now is I think perfect. I think it's a lovely setup. It's very fair, and it's nice to see it fairly firm. It's not often we get firm courses even in good weather, so nice to see.
NELSON SILVERIO: Adam Scott, thank you.

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