Adam Scott loves the game like all of us. But after more than 20 years on the PGA Tour, the 42-year-old’s favourite tournaments to play have shrunken to the four majors, the Players Championship and this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera CC in Los Angeles, where he’s won twice.
Outside of that group, Scott won’t be begging to play when he’s old and no longer competitive.
Except one venue: Augusta National.
The world No. 35 adores the Masters having become the first Australian to win the green jacket, in 2013. Augusta National allows Masters champions a lifetime exemption into the April major, and it often sees players like Fred Couples playing well into the 50s or in the case of Larry Mize or Bernhard Langer, well into their 60s.
It’s never been confirmed, rather suggested, that Masters champions eventually are asked to stop playing when they are no longer able to consistently make the cut.
Scott plans to be one of those past champions.
On Wednesday at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in Los Angeles, Scott was asked if he sees himself “being one of the guys who plays until they’re 65 years old and shoots 80, 78 and calls it a week [misses the cut]?
“I hope I can do better than that at 65, but you might be right,” Scott said as laughter followed in his press conference. “That might be one tournament they might have to ask me to stop playing [laughs]. I’m going to probably try and milk that exemption as long as I can. I think I’ve got a fair few years left in me yet.”
Indeed, he does, and Scott hopes to become a multiple Masters champion and multiple major winner in two months, when the 2023 Masters begins.
Until then, he’ll try for a third victory at Los Angeles’ famed Riviera course, having won a weather-shortened Nissan Open in 2005 before grabbing an official PGA Tour win in Los Angeles in 2020.
I love coming back to Riviera. It’s my favourite stop on tour every year and good feelings for me around this place, especially out on the golf course. It was nice to play [the pro am] this morning, even though it was an incredibly challenging morning [in cold weather], it was nice to be back on the track in a place I’m very familiar with and looking to kind of get my season going here this week.”
Scott is one of Australians in the field at the Genesis, joined by former world No.1 Jason Day, Lucas Herbert, and Cameron Davis. Tiger Woods, the tournament host, is also teeing up, making his return to the PGA Tour after seven months resting with an injured ankle.
