By Australian Golf Digest
ADAM Scott says winning the Australian Open in 2009 kickstarted his return to the top of the golf world after his “worst season” on tour as the world No.6 looks to atone for his 2013 heartbreak this week at Royal Sydney.
Scott claims his five-shot win over Stuart Appleby at the New South Wales Golf Club is one of best wins outside donning the green jacket at the 2013 Masters Tournament. The 36-year-old suggested a similar confidence boost could see this week’s winner catapulted to a similar purple patch.
“It (the 2009 Open) was my first win on home soil, so to get that out of the way and not have to deal with that was nice, too,” Scott told AAP.
“It just kind of freed up everything for me; it gave me a lot of confidence to get that monkey off my back in Australia and let me get on my with career a bit. It was a real kick in the right direction. I put it up there in very high regard with my other wins.”
Scott somewhat started the trend of Stonehaven Cup winners rolling onto further success. After plummeting out of the top 50 in the world rankings and the top 100 on the US PGA Tour money list in 2009, Scott surged back to career-best form ton win the 2010 Valero Texas Open in a season that delivered almost $US 2.5 million in prizemoney.
After him, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy won the 2013 Open before winning two majors in 2014. A year later, Jordan Spieth claimed the 2014 Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club by six shots months before winning the Masters and US Open in 2015.
This week, however, Scott’s mission is surely to atone for losing a four-shot final round lead at the 2013 event.
Scott famously hit his approach over the back of Royal Sydney’s 18th green and failed to get up-and-down. McIlroy put his approach to within striking distance and sunk the birdie putt to win by one.
