Adam Scott came a long way for his first tournament of 2015 last week, and much of the talk was about his short putter.
There was speculation that a long break at home in Australia awaiting the birth of his first child might lead Scott to dump his long putter for a more conventional flat stick, and that was verified when he showed up for the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral in Miami.
Scott, who plays this week in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla., is using the short putter with a claw grip.
“(The short putter) feels good,” said the Aussie, who got rid of his long wand less than a year before it will be banned. “I enjoy doing it. It’s not that big a deal.
“I did it for a long time, too, that way.”
Last week in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Scott wound up in a tie for fourth and putted well all week with his new putter, finishing at plus-3.098 in strokes gained putting.
Early in his career, he was really good with the short stick, and he won 21 tournaments around the world with it. He would have led the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting at plus-0.88 had that statistic been in effect in 2004.
However, Scott’s putting stroke eroded as the years went on, and he became so frustrated that he went to the long putter, anchored to his chest, in February 2011.
That helped him become the first Aussie to win the Masters in 2013 and the third player to capture a major using an anchored putter, after Keegan Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship and Webb Simpson claimed the 2012 U.S. Open using belly putters.
Scott’s victory might have been the last straw for golf’s powers that be, who outlawed anchored putters as of Jan. 1, 2016.
The Aussie seems to be enjoying the challenge of change.
“I’ve kind of enjoyed experimenting at home the last couple months because I’ve had so much time up my sleeve,” said Scott, who was No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings for 11 weeks last year but dropped to No. 5 during his long layoff.
“Thinking a little more objectively about it at the back end of last year, I thought because I do have to make an adjustment by the end of this year, if I’m going to spend some time doing it, I should start now and maybe find the best solution.”
Scott also has a new caddie, Mike Kerr, after he and Steve Williams parted ways late last year, and a new baby, Bo Vera Scott, as his wife, Marie Kojzar, gave birth a few weeks ago.
And he is ready for the new season.
“Yeah, everything was getting boring so I thought, ‘Just change everything completely,'” Scott joked when he met with reporters at Doral. “The last few weeks at home, seeing a bit of the guys play (on TV), I got that kind of itchy feeling to play. But I was home for a good reason, and everything is going well.
“I’m kind of starting a little late. I’ve got to get playing and try and find that nice rhythm on the golf course. I think that’s my goal the next three or four weeks out here. It is different than playing back home with your family or your mates. It’s certainly much more demanding out here.”
Even though his 2014 season wasn’t as good as his 2013 season, when he won four times including his first major, Scott captured the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial last year for his 11th PGA Tour victory, one of his 10 finishes in the top 10 on the U.S. circuit.
Late in the year, he tied for 12th in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and placed in the top five in all of the big three tournaments Down Under — tying for second in the Australian Masters, one stroke behind Nick Cullen; tying for fourth in the Australian Open and losing on the seventh hole of a playoff to Greg Chalmers in the Australian PGA.
A year earlier, he won the Aussie Masters and the PGA, and he was on the verge of a sweep when he made a bogey and Rory McIlroy made a birdie on the last hole to win the Australian Open by one stroke.
The Masters is only four weeks away, so Scott doesn’t have a lot of time, but that is the form he would like to take to Augusta National.
–Story courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
