Adam Scott is back in the Lone Star State as he looks to keep alive a majors streak that has stretched across nearly two decades.
The Aussie tends to play a relatively light schedule during the spring, often times skipping every event between the Masters and The Players. But this time around he opted to return to the Valero Texas Open for the first time since 2011 in an effort to capitalize on the form he found two weeks ago at Augusta National, where he tied for 32nd.
“Hopefully kind of pick up where I left off on the weekend, which was really solid, and get a bit of momentum going because that’s what I haven’t had this year,” Scott told reporters. “Trying to put four good rounds together and get the most out of my game for a change.”
Scott has won each of the four stroke-play events held annually in Texas, completing the so-called “Texas Slam” before the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play relocated to Austin. That includes his win at TPC San Antonio back in 2010, when he closed with rounds of 66-67 for a one-shot victory.
After a seven-year hiatus, Scott is back San Antonio after a solid but underwhelming spring stretch. He cracked the top 20 at both the Honda Classic and Valspar Championship, but his worldwide top-10 drought stretches back nearly a year to the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June. As a result, the former world No. 1 has dropped to No. 59 in the latest rankings.
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“I’m trying to be really in tune with where my game’s at and identify why I’m just not having better results,” Scott said. “To kind of change that, I’ve got to change something, otherwise I’m just going to do the same thing.”
That ranking will become even more important in the coming weeks as Scott looks to keep his streak of consecutive majors intact. He has played in 67 straight dating back to The Open in 2001, second only to Sergio Garcia’s 75 among active players. But Scott’s five-year exemption for winning the 2013 Masters has run its course, meaning he is not yet exempt for the upcoming U.S. Open.
Barring a win next month at TPC Sawgrass, Scott’s only way to avoid a trip to sectional qualifying will be to maintain a position inside the top 60 in the world rankings on either May 21 or June 11.
The key for Scott remains easy to identify but hard to fix. While he ranks fifth on Tour this season in strokes gained: tee-to-green, he’s 194th in strokes gained: putting. Scott won in consecutive weeks in 2016 with a short putter, but otherwise has largely struggled on the greens since the anchoring ban took effect more than two years ago.
“Hopefully a quick turnaround here and things start going in the right direction, because I think I can have a really great back end of the season,” Scott said. “My ball-striking is where I want it; I like where my short game’s at. I just need to get a bit of momentum going on the greens. It’s easy to do that on the putting green at home, but that doesn’t always translate out here. I think I’ve just got to make it happen out here.”
Source: Internet
