Less than a month ago Adam Scott was struggling to squeeze into the FedEx Cup Playoffs; now he is carrying the type of momentum that could take him all the way to the $10 million winner’s bonus.
Hot on the heels of top-five finishes at both the PGA Championship and The Northern Trust, Scott enters the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston full of confidence given his dramatic form reversal and history at the course.
The first of Scott’s 13 US PGA Tour victories came at TPC Boston at the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship and as recently as 2016 he finished solo fourth courtesy of a final round of 65 that inspired a FedEx Cup Playoffs run where he finished fourth.
Scott’s late-season surge saw him enter the playoffs in 73rd position and needing to finish high on the leaderboard in order to advance past week two but having jumped 33 places to now sit 40th, the Queenslander sees a shift from pressure to opportunity.
Adam Scott made 9 putts outside 5 feet on Friday.
Highlights from his 7-under 64 at @TheNTGolf: pic.twitter.com/RZxEbs0Oc1
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 25, 2018
“There really is only pressure on the guy on the bubble. If you are a competitor and you want to be competing and there is a chance that you won’t be there next week then you’ve got pressure on you,” Scott said ahead of the opening round which starts on Friday night AEST.
“The rest is an opportunity for everyone. And if you are a positive person then every week you’re out here is an opportunity.”
As is the case for almost all players on the US PGA Tour but particularly so for a renowned ball-striker such as Scott, integral to his improved results has been a more responsive putter, or two for that matter.
Scott turned heads when he carried both a long and short putter for the first time at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and led the field in the statistic of strokes gained in putting.
It was his best performance in that stat since his four-shot win in the Booz Allen Classic 14 years ago and has him earmarked as one of the players to beat at a course where he has six top-10 finishes.
While Scott is pushing to move into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup who qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake Marc Leishman is fighting to retain his position.
Tied for 34th at The Northern Trust, Leishman dropped from 22nd to 24th in the FedEx Cup adjusted standings but returns to TPC Boston where he was third 12 months ago, a result that preceded his win at the BMW Championship.
Like Scott, Cameron Smith went from potential bubble boy to top-30 entrenched player with his best result of 2018 at The Northern Trust.
A tie for third propelled Smith from 53rd in the FedEx Cup all the way up to 16th, a far more comfortable position as he and Scott jockey for position on the world golf rankings, Scott one spot ahead of his countryman in 38th position.
Australia’s highest ranked player in both the FedEx Cup and world rankings, Jason Day, also possesses a strong history at TPC Boston.
A final-round 66 saw Day finish last year’s tournament tied for 25th, the eighth time he has finished at least that high on the leaderboard since his debut at the venue in 2008.
