Scott aiming to shake off rust

Adam Scott, who came down to earth with a bump after his fabulous victory in golf’s unofficial fifth Major in March, returned from a five-week break in Germany today.

The 23-year-old Australian admitted to being rusty as he began the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open at Heidelberg’s St Leon-Rot course.

Scott looked a superstar in the making as he pushed Padraig Harrington into second place at Sawgrass, but then came missed cuts in both the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta and the Masters at Augusta. He had an opening 80 there.

“It is all a learning process and hopefully in the future I will know I need the time to wind down after a big win,” he said.

“I rushed myself the week after and the wheels fell off, then I never really put them back on for the next week.

“After that I went home for a month, played a bit and pretty much spent the rest of the time on the beach.

“But last week I went to Las Vegas to see Butch (Harmon). This tournament I would just like to get four solid rounds away again.”

The name of the event brings back good memories. It was at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston last September that Scott achieved his first victory on the US Tour.

Despite the connection with coach Harmon which goes back to his amateur days Scott has retained membership of the European Tour and will also be playing in next week’s Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth.

He is no longer with Scottish caddie Alastair McLean, however.

The pair split after the Masters and Scott now has Greg Norman’s long-time caddie Tony Navarro alongside him.

“That’s the way this game is,” commented Scott.

“It wasn’t directly related to Augusta by any means. Alastair and I had a really good run together and I think he did a lot of good things for my game, but the time was coming where I think we needed to take a break and go in different directions.”