ADAM SCOTT Round 1 Media Conference Transcript HAMISH JONES: Adam, I had you in here yesterday and I said to you what was left that hadn&apost been said. A course record, 62 – take us through it. ADAM SCOTT: Well it was a beautiful morning, that&aposs for sure, for golf and I think the front nine was ideal conditions for us, which was obviously the back nine. I came out hitting great shots and didn&apost have much work to do to clean them up the first five holes and then made a nice putt on my sixth hole and I was really rolling at that point. But it&aposs interesting because you go through, I think I&aposve gone through a roller coaster of emotion out there today, from cruising after six holes to having to work pretty hard for the next six or seven holes just to make some pars and nothing much going my way and getting a bit frustrated, missing a green at about the fourth hole, feeling like my swing is leaving me again [LAUGHS] and then to hit one good shot on the par 3 fifth, close and knock it in and then finish really strong. It&aposs just incredible how in 18 holes you can do 360 degrees of emotion [LAUGHS] and mood swings and everything. It was a great start and a very nice little course record to have here at Royal Sydney. Q. Adam, you were brilliant out there; a two part question. Have you ever been six under after six in a meaningful tournament and when you got to six under, what were you thinking? Does your mind go to 59 or something like that? ADAM SCOTT: So you&aposre saying the Saturday comp doesn&apost count then? [LAUGHS] Q. Possibly not. ADAM SCOTT: I don&apost think I have. I got off to a great start a few years ago in Qatar on a Sunday and birdied the first five and went on to win that day, shooting 11 under but it&aposs an amazing start. I remember Greg Norman birdying the first six holes of Royal Troon in 1989 and that&aposs about as good a start as I can remember. Today obviously was very good. What was the second part to your question again? Q. When you get to six under, what&aposs your thinking? ADAM SCOTT: To 59 – well, yeah, I mean, I wasn&apost thinking about it hard, but I knew it was a possibility with having birdied the six holes I&aposd birdied, I felt like all the opportunities were still to come. So if I kept it going and had a good run around the turn I thought it was on for sure, especially with six, seven, eight, nine to finish. There&aposs a lot of opportunities if things go your way, so it could have been on but like I said, for whatever reason I struggled for a few holes and then I wasn&apost giving myself many chances, but amazingly I holed so many four and five foot putts today, which is what you have to do to have a good score or to keep a score, but it&aposs nice to see the bit of practice I&aposve been doing with the putting is working. Q. Adam, you were saying outside there that when you look at the score card it&aposs actually 10 birdies in a row. ADAM SCOTT: Yes. [LAUGHS] Some day I&aposm going to be able to embellish that I made 10 birdies in a row [LAUGHS] but that&aposs going to be a few years until I can get away with that. Q. Looking back at that 61 you shot in Qatar, how would the 62 compare with that one? ADAM SCOTT: The 61 in Qatar was a pretty great round obviously, being a final round and going on to win with that score. This being the first round, it&aposs a very different feeling. But any time you shoot a number like 62 or 10 under, they&aposre great rounds. It&aposs very hard to separate one or the other. I still think the best round of golf I played was a 62 at Muirfield Village one year and it was the lowest score that day by five shots, and I think that kind of gives an indication of how good a round it is, but this is obviously a very good round of golf – or one of my best rounds of golf is probably what I should say. Q. Adam, what did you think of the gallery out there today? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I couldn&apost believe how many people were there this morning early and the crowd swelled really quickly in the first couple of holes. It was fantastic. It&aposs been great to come home and see how enthusiastic everyone is about coming out and watching. I wasn&apost expecting that this morning at all, maybe tomorrow afternoon but just incredible crowds this morning and so nice that I was able to hit a few nice shots for them and get it going. It&aposs fun to see golf on a bit of a high down here at the moment; really it&aposs been a lot of fun to play in front of everyone. Q. Adam, did you, as per your routine, get up at 4.10 am this morning and is it possible that you could possibly have hit a flat spot at say mid morning, you needed that morning coffee mid round when you had your eight straight pars? ADAM SCOTT: [LAUGHS] I didn&apost actually get up quite that early this morning, about 4.30 or something, but it can just happen. I can&apost sit here and complain about anything but a bit like last week in the first round, the swing wanders on a couple of shots and it did it again today. It&aposs not quite in the slot, although I hit a lot of great shots today. It&aposs a bit – I don&apost know the right way to say it – it&aposs not as free flowing as the first couple of weeks. The swing is a bit of hard work for me at the moment. I can still hit good shots obviously but hitting a few average ones as well and I got away with the bad ones with some good saves. Q. You sort of half answered it there but you spoke about the creeping demons there a little. How did you hold them at bay and is that part of the happiness about the round, that you did come back and finish with four birdies? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I was really happy to finish the round off with four birdies because I felt like I&aposd created such a great opportunity to have a really low round out here and didn&apost want to waste it. It would have been a shame to come in and feel like I shot six under and was disappointed with that after the start. To finish strong was really important. I think it&aposs just how much do you want it and how hard are you mentally going to put in on the course to kind of dig yourself out of hitting a few bad shots and kind of throwing the toys out of the cot. Getting yourself back on track and hit a good shot when you have to and get on with it. I felt like there&aposs been a good round in me for four weeks and finally I threw it out there today. Q. Adam, can you talk about the dynamic of playing with Jason Day? I remember at the Masters you made an amazing charge with him a few years ago and the dynamic having someone you enjoy playing with; because you were still telling stories on the final hole walking up 18. ADAM SCOTT: Yeah. Q. There seems to be a great dynamic when you play together. ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely, I think we definitely feed off each other. Jase is a really fiery competitor. He gets me fired up to play with him and I think we both like trying to beat each other out there and show each other what we&aposve got [LAUGHS] But like I said last week, I&aposve got tonnes of respect for how hard Jason works on his game. He&aposs only got good results coming his way. It&aposs fun to watch him play out there. He hits great shots. He&aposs got an incredible short game. I try and watch and learn and just take in what he&aposs doing because he&aposs a main competitor to me every week I play around the world. Q. Adam, did you and Jason discuss what you were going to wear, because you were remarkably similar? ADAM SCOTT: [LAUGHS] Yeah, I know. We got the kind of team colours a week late there. But no, remarkable and a couple of the caddies were dressed appropriately as well but Steve didn&apost get the memo. Q. When you saw Jason this morning did you look and say God, look what you&aposve got on? ADAM SCOTT: We did, I mentioned it to him. He got the memo but Kevin wore a red shirt instead of blue. I don&apost think it can happen tomorrow though, or else something might be going on. Q. What&aposs your normal Friday shirt? Whatever comes out of the cupboard? ADAM SCOTT: [LAUGHS] Yeah, whatever&aposs pressed. Q. I don&apost mean your answer to be sounding big headed, but when you come to a tournament like this as a Masters&apos champion, having won the PGA and the Masters, do you feel as though you&aposve got an edge on the field and also, the second part of the question is, do you feel as though you&aposre walking around with a target on your back, that everybody&aposs after you to get ahead of you? ADAM SCOTT: My edge on the field may only be confidence. Confidence is high, I&aposm playing a lot of good golf at the moment, shooting a lot of good scores and hitting a lot of good shots. I think that&aposs what I&aposd put my good play down to at the moment is confidence and certainly there are a bunch of guys here that are confident and there are a bunch of guys not, and that is always the edge or not the edge. I don&apost know if there&aposs a target on my back, there might be after today because I might be leading at the end of the day and then I&aposm the guy who everyone&aposs shooting for, but certainly not teeing off on Thursday [LAUGHS] I don&apost think I&aposve got a target on my back. Q. Obviously at the end of a very long season, a lot of the time the Australian players arrive here pretty tired fulfilling their commitments in Australia. Did you particularly try to make sure your game was in great shape to come home or has it just happened that way? ADAM SCOTT: Every time I play I try and make sure that my game&aposs in as good as shape as it can be; that&aposs how I play my schedule and I treat every tournament the same. Even though I focus on Majors, I still plan to play every other tournament as best I can, so when I came home I did the work I needed in the weeks leading up to the PGA to get ready as best I could and then somehow try and keep that going for four weeks, which I don&apost normally do but I&aposve hit a few balls after rounds, which I don&apost often do, but just to practice because I&aposm playing so much the next few weeks. So you need to keep hitting some balls and keep your swing in check. So I&aposve kind of tried to plan to play well [LAUGHS]. Q. Adam, just a bit of housekeeping, on the seventh, what did you hit in after you monstered that drive down there on the par 5, third last hole? ADAM SCOTT: I hit a four iron in. Q. On the ninth? ADAM SCOTT: It was a sand wedge. Q. In part you&aposve answered this but you made a tricky up and down for birdie at eight and then you&aposve flushed it stone dead at nine. It&aposs almost a walk of celebration there because you&aposre on your way to a 62. What emotions are you thinking there, looking around at the crowd who are just going crazy? ADAM SCOTT: I didn&apost see it finish stone dead on nine but once I got up to the green I was pretty relieved to see that and I was pretty confident that I could make a two and a half footer there. It was a very nice reception going to the green. It had a little bit of a feeling like it was the last hole on Sunday. It was very nice to get that kind of reception walking up to the last hole of a Thursday. It was nice and Jason and Kevin were both really nice and complimentary of the way I played today. Obviously we all kind of appreciate when someone&apos s playing well and acknowledge them. Q. Adam, you&aposve proven yourself to be a great front runner in your career, perhaps more especially early in your career. Is that a mindset that you adopt or is it just a consequence of playing well? ADAM SCOTT: I think I just kind of carried that over from junior golf and figured that really the times that I was winning tournaments early in my career were the times I was playing well. I don&apost think I had the complete game to play not well and win at that point. I was either playing well or playing bad and when I was playing well I had a chance to win, and I was in front and I was playing well, so why go backwards. It’s kind of that simple. Whereas now I&aposm a much more complete player and some weeks I don&apost have to play my best stuff to be in with a chance. You can be a few in front but not playing great and it&aposs a little harder to just keep your foot on the gas because you might not have complete control over your swing or where the shots are starting. But it&aposs certainly a good– Q. [Inaudible] ADAM SCOTT: What&aposs that? [LAUGHS] Unbelievable. [LAUGHS] Sorry, I was just going to say I think a little bit it&aposs a mindset. You want to be a good front runner, you want to be out there and when you&aposre playing well you want to keep your foot on the gas. I had a few times in my career where I ran away and won by several shots. It&aposs a good attribute to have, it&aposs hard to do but it&aposs a good attribute if you can do it. Q. Before the tournament started you said you wanted to finish the year big. Did you check the course record before you started? ADAM SCOTT: [LAUGHS] No I didn&apost, I didn&apost know what it was. Like I said, I felt the first few holes the swing was right where I wanted it and I just went for it. I figured I&aposve got nothing to lose and had a perfect morning for it. Steve and I have felt there&aposs been a good round in there and a really good week where I can make few mistakes and come and put my foot down and go. So today was the perfect day to do that after that kind of start. Q. Adam, does the perfectionist in you look at that middle stretch and think of the lost opportunities and then compute them into what you could do tomorrow? ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, a little bit. I don&apost think I&aposm thinking about tomorrow bit I&aposm kind of thinking about what today could have been if I was really striking it, lost opportunities on one and two for sure. Q. What could you have shot today? ADAM SCOTT: I don&apost think I could have shot any better. I made every putt I should have made. I just had five footers all day for par or for birdie and I made everything I had an opportunity to. I didn&apost leave anything out there. I was out of position a few times and I did well to get back in position and made those five footers. Tomorrow&aposs a whole different ballgame. Backing up a low round is something that&aposs hard to do and you don&apost often see guys go back to back low like that. So I&aposm going to have to come out tomorrow and try and get control of my game and mind again and just deal with the conditions as best I can. Q. Adam, a phenomenal round. Obviously you said your swing has just out of the rails a little bit through that stretch of eight pars. Have you been back on the phone to Brad back in England to have conversations? Are you just managing your swing while you&aposve been here in Australia by yourself? ADAM SCOTT: I didn&apost speak to Brad much the first couple of weeks, everything was looking pretty good. We spoke a little bit last week, not much. It&aposs hard to give a lesson when you&aposre sitting on the couch in London. He thought my posture looked a little bit sloppy last week, is what we&aposd call it and he said to kind of square everything up. I did that yesterday and today. At times it felt really good and at times it didn&apost. It&aposs just going to be a case of me managing that and I&aposll have a chat with him and see if he saw anything this round and see what he thinks. It&aposs kind of hard; I try not to think too much about it. It&aposs not that bad but I do like to lean on my ball striking a bit and it&aposs frustrating when it&aposs not perfect. Q. Adam, what is he saying about what you&aposre achieving right now? ADAM SCOTT: I think he kind of expects me to play well. [LAUGHS] He&aposs pretty happy obviously. He feels like all the work we&aposve done all year is still in there and we&aposre moving in the right direction. At least it proves to him I&aposm not down here slacking off [LAUGHS] like I could accuse him of over there. [LAUGHS]. He&aposs chuffed with everything that&aposs happened this year and obviously he&aposs a quiet guy and he deserves a lot of credit for what he&aposs put into my game as well. HAMISH JONES: Adam, terrific start. Thank you for coming in. ADAM SCOTT: Thank you. Transcripts provided by http://www.jamtranscripts.com/
Author: Golf Australia