Just the third winless year of Adam Scott’s professional career has finished in disappointing fashion with the hometown favourite missing the cut at the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines on Friday.
After Marc Leishman and Adam Bland both vaulted to the top of the leaderboard in the morning to be at 12-under through two rounds, Scott’s round fell apart in spectacular fashion on the back nine with three straight bogeys from the 12th hole that saw him fall beneath the cut line of 1-under and never recover.
He fired at the par-5 15th from just under 200 metres with an iron but pulled it narrowly into the bunker fronting the green and although he got up and down with a birdie putt from five feet, was unable to make up the necessary ground in the final three holes.
His tee shot at the par-3 16th had eyes for the flag before spilling over the back edge and after turning to his trusty long putter to try and rescue the situation from the sunken swale missed the eight-footer left for par to drop back to plus-two and out of the tournament.
A consolation birdie on the 17th hole saw Scott move back to 1-over for the week but it wasn’t enough to stop him from missing his first cut at an Australian tournament since the 2010 PGA Championship at Coolum.
“Today I didn’t hit the ball very well, especially off the tee. I spent most of the time in the trees and it’s hard to play from there,” Scott said after signing for a two-over par 74.
“The course seemed to play long so that was costly not to drive it well this week.”
Scott’s next tournament appearance won’t be until February next year either at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or a week later at the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club and says he has plenty of work to do in the next two months.
“I’ve got to lift my ball-striking up,” Scott said.
“That’s where I lose too many shots and that’s the strength of my game. I’ve got to bring that back up to standard and that will take some work.
Adam Scott just can't get the putter working #AusPGA pic.twitter.com/Te1qqnfVg6
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) December 1, 2017
“When I get myself some time I’ll be able to put some work in and I just haven’t been able to do that for a few months and that’s why it’s suffering a bit at the moment.
It was a mixed afternoon for the tournament’s other major drawcard, Spaniard Sergio Garcia, with the reigning Masters champion making birdie at two of his first seven holes only to give both shots back with a messy double bogey at the par-5 ninth due to an approach shot that dived left into the water.
A bogey at 10 saw the tournament’s early leader drop back to 4-under before a birdie at 11 got him back to even par for the day and then back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 gave the largely disheartened gallery following the marquee group a glimmer of hope.
All the highlights from @TheSergioGarcia round 2 at the #AusPGA pic.twitter.com/ko7e6FMnR0
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) December 1, 2017
Garcia’s own mood was soured somewhat with a bogey at the par-4 18th but said he was pleased to post red numbers given the mental fatigue he is fighting in his last tournament of the year.
“It wasn’t my best day out there today,” Garcia said after shooting 71, six shots behind leaders Marc Leishman and Adam Bland.
“My golf game wasn’t as sharp as I would like it to be but I guess the good thing is we still fought hard, we stayed in it and as uncomfortable as I felt out there to be able to still shoot 1-under is a positive thing.
“If I was a tiny bit sharper I could have easily shot four or five under and really been very close to the leaders.”
