Scott’s major breakthrough
“Meat pies, why not?” said a jubilant Scott after halting Argentina’s Angel Cabrera’s bid for a second green jacket on Sunday night and claiming a first one for Australia after so many near misses.
And who would deny the Queenslander his pies, a shrimp on the barbie and a crate of Brisbane’s XXXX lager, for the 32-year-old did more than just stop Cabrera, he fully deserved his moment of triumph.
Like Rory McIlroy’s resurrection from Masters despair to major breakthrough at the 2011 US Open two months later, Scott completed a similar journey from the despair of his collapse during the closing holes of the Open Championship at Royal Lytham last July to redemption in Augusta at the weekend.
His talent was long signalled, from his amateur days shooting a championship record 10-under 63 in the Greg Norman Holden International in 2000 to his big tournament professional wins around the globe during the early noughties, including the 2004 Players Championship, that tournament’s youngest winner at age 23. Yet Scott could not quite take the leap forwards and translate big pay days into major championship success, or any kind of major form for that matter.
A tie for ninth on his Masters debut in 2002 represented Scott’s first top-10 finish in a major and only three more followed in the next nine years as the quietly spoken Australian battled his demons on golf’s biggest stages.
By 2009, he was at a pretty low ebb, his world ranking falling to number 76 having occupied a place in the top 10 for the best part of the previous four years. It was then, however, and not for the first time, that Greg Norman intervened, raising his compatriot’s spirits by making Scott a captain’s pick on the international team for the 2009 Presidents Cup against the USA.
“That was a big moment for me,” Scott, wearing his green jacket, said on Sunday night. “It was kind of gut-check time. You know, my game was in a bit of a rut to be fair, and I wasn’t enjoying it so much. But Greg, as the captain, had a lot of faith in me and belief that I could win a point for his team, and he gave me a pick, and I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
Scott had others telling him they also believed in his abilities, including his Presidents Cup team-mate Cabrera, whose fondness for the Aussie even extended to a sporting thumbs up during Sunday’s play-off as his rival fired in a superb iron approach shot to the 10th green.
“Angel is a great man, and I’ve gotten to know him a fair bit through Presidents Cups. I played with him a couple times in them and have spent some time with him. I think he’s a gentleman. To do that at that point is very nice, but I think with limited abilities to converse, you know, we would consider each other friends and have a lot of respect for each other.
“And he said a great thing to me in 2009 at The Presidents Cup before we all left, and unfortunately we lost that event. My form was struggling, but he pulled me aside and he said, ‘You’re a great, great player’. Something I didn’t forget and it was really nice of him.”
Scott emerged from that Presidents Cup with his mental strength replenished. By the start of 2011, he was competing for a green jacket, locked in a duel with another compatriot in Jason Day, down the back stretch as McIlroy imploded, only for Charl Schwartzel to sneak up on the rail with birdies on each of the final four holes. This time, though, he was unbowed, winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron and then finishing tied for seventh at the PGA Championship, his best year in the majors since 2006.
Better was still to come, of course and last year after a tie for eighth at the Masters, Scott showed his mettle once again to rebound from his Lytham hell with a tie for 11th behind McIlroy in the PGA at Kiawah.
“Everything I said after the Open is how I felt, and I meant it. It did give me more belief that I could win a major. It proved to me, in fact, that I could. And at the PGA, I was more motivated than, I would say, the Open just a few weeks before. It was to myself now; you know you can do it.”
The feelgood factor went up a notch eight months later at Augusta National as Scott saved his best golf for last, catching a break on the 13th hole in the final round when his approach shot rolled off the green but held on the bank above the water and kicking on from there, no better than on the 72nd hole, when his clutch birdie putt banished so many demons from Lytham and piled the pressure on Cabrera, who had to birdie the last himself to force a play-off.
Having each played the 18th again for pars in the first hole of sudden death, it all came down to another crucial birdie putt for Scott to claim the prize his countrymen had coveted for so long. And when it sank, the Australian, ignoring the pouring rain, turned and raised both fists in triumph. A major champion at last.
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