[PHOTO: Harry How]
It has been one of the biggest misnomers during the past few years when considering Adam Scott’s PGA Tour performance. Everybody looks at his long putter and figures that rolling the ball can still be his Achilles’ heel. After all, in his prime, the Queenslander who fashioned his swing after Tiger Woods was considered one of the best ball-strikers in the game.
Yet 44-year-old Scott will be the first to say that it has been his iron play that has held him back from more success in more recent seasons. “Atrocious” is how Scott judged it and the stats bear that out. Last season, the former Masters champion ranked an awful 143rd in strokes gained/approach and 138th in greens in regulation. And if you think tour pros regularly hit the ball close to the flagstick, consider that Scott was 149th in proximity – at 38 feet(!) from the hole.
Heading into the current season, Scott knew there needed to be changes. “That’s why I’ve been moving stuff around, because I figured if I leave it the same, I’ll keep getting atrocious,” he said.
But change comes with its own challenges, and Scott has done about as much tinkering as any player of his level. Paralysis by analysis maybe? After a stellar round of nine-under-par 63 that gave him an unexpected three-shot lead after day two of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines, Scott said he’s gone through four sets of irons this year.
Scott has changed three times in just the past month. Before the Genesis Scottish Open, he went to the Miura AS-1 prototype blades that he helped create and finished second. He backed that up with a T-10 in the Open Championship at Troon. But thinking that he might be better off using clubs with more bounce for the different turf in last week’s first playoffs event, the FedEx St Jude Championship, Scott switched to Miura KM-700 irons. The result: a decent tie for 18th that advanced him into the BMW, though he ranked 53rd in the 70-man field in approach.
So… Scott returned to the Miuras again for this week and is fifth in approach through two rounds in the Colorado altitude.
“Before the Scottish,” Scott said overnight, Australian time, “we managed to really, like, sort my irons out, in what I’m using, to shaft to grip to lofts to lie angles and club, the whole thing – complete working over, and as soon as we did that, it started feeling better.
“It felt like good swings came out not how they should, and there were just a few inconsistencies throughout the set,” he explained. “I tried some stuff. I changed ball a couple times and therefore I changed the shaft to try and match the ball. It just got a little out of sorts, and we kind of cleaned that back up.”
A devotee of Titleist blades for many years, Scott even tried cavity-back Titleist 620 CB irons for a time last year.
“It’s pretty big,” Scott said of that switch. “I’ve basically used a blade my whole life, but I kind of felt like watching this new generation, a lot of them play cavities, and it’s probably the future. It seems more forgiving. I think it is more forgiving. But it’s just not, like, what I’m used to. I thought it was worth having a go. I didn’t play terrible when I did that. There was some good stuff in there, too.
“But I think when it comes down to it, under the most pressure, I feel most comfortable with kind of that blade. I’ll use that as long as I can.”
With his result last week, Scott, who is ranked 31st in the world, secured his position at 41st in the FedEx Cup rankings, and being in the top 50 heading into this week meant he’ll be in all of the PGA Tour’s signature events next season. A very strong finish in the BMW could vault him into the the top 30 and a berth in the Tour Championship. For a player who says he’s been a “bubble boy” the past several years, Scott is feeling freed up to play his best golf.
“My game is in a good place,” he said, “and that freedom is helpful.”
