Date: June 17, 2009
Author: Luke Buttigieg, Sportal

Scott ready to turn it around

Former world No.3 Adam Scott is hopeful of a return to form soon even though he admits he enters this week&aposs US Open &aposlow on confidence&apos. The 28-year-old has missed the cut in seven of his past eight tournaments, shooting 77 and 81 in his most recent outing at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, and recently spent a week at home in England honing his game on his own. Having decided that the best intentions of those closest to him in a professional sense – including his caddy Tony Navarro, coach Butch Harmon and fellow Aussie pro and 2006 US Open champ Geoff Ogilvy – were cluttering his mind, he got away from it all. Considered one of the finest strikers of a ball in the game, Scott spent time analysing his swing because it had been letting him down this year and he is now confident that he has identified the problems and is ready to start playing better golf. But speaking on the eve of the US Open at Bethpage Black in New York, where he missed the cut when the course last hosted the tournament seven years ago, Scott concedes he hasn&apost chosen the best week to talk up a resurgence. “Yeah it&aposs been a long few months for me but (I&aposm) certainly feeling better this week about it,” said Scott, who has dropped back to No.42 in the latest world rankings. “I think I&aposve done some good work the last week and I&aposm excited because I feel like I&aposm on the front foot now not playing off the back foot like I was the last few months.” “It&aposs a tough week to come into low on confidence but I think the way I&aposm hitting it is encouraging and it can turn around quick this game, it has before in the past and I&aposd like it to again this week.” With predictions of high scores this week, Ogilvy said that rather than being as testing as possible with narrow fairways and long rough, he&aposd prefer to see players able to showcase not only great ball-striking from the fairways but also superb recovery shots. “I just think you (should) set up the golf course to allow the guy who has the most game that week (to) separate himself,” Ogilvy said. “I think sometimes when you have a really constricting set-up with really narrow fairways and really long rough … the super-talented guy who can hit it out of the rough or the trees, you take that show away from him and you just make him wedge it back to the fairway, that&aposs taking an element of the game (away).” “What would Seve&aposs (Ballesteros&apos) legacy be if he played some of these golf courses, you would never have heard of him, and that would be a shame.” “A lot of Tiger&aposs (Woods&apos) best shots are recovery shots, Phil&aposs (Mickelson&aposs) best shots, if you take that away, they&aposre not who they are, so I think you have to at least try to allow that to be a part of golf.”