At the 2024 Open Championship, Adam Scott was asked what kept him and Justin Rose, both of whom did not win their second major that week, going. Scott gave his answer with his trademark smile and a chuckle.
“Always being an ‘Almost Great’ of the game drives us into our later years,” Scott said that Sunday at Troon.
It was honest and enlightening. In order everything he got in the game – a Masters champion, a Players champion, World No. 1 – Adam Scott always sees himself as an underachiever. A year after the US Open at Oakmont, Scott offered a little more as he entered Sunday with another real chance to finally knock off the No. 2 major.
“I’ve put together a great career, but I think another major would take a long time to fill my own, when it’s all said and done,” Scott said. It was an honest and deeply personal thing for Scott to offer. That for everything he has achieved, he is still looking for things to fulfill his self. Things he knows could never come. And what if they don’t? What if the shadow finally catches him before he can get one of the things he’s after? How do you accept this and find peace?
Adam Scott left Oakmont that week a lucky loser while JJ Spaun roared to victory. So 44 years, Scott said The Athletic Brendan Quinn who could push for a little more, but eventually all things come to an end.
“I feel like I can keep this up for another 18 months, for sure,” Scott he said to Quinn at Oakmont. “So at that point, I’m going to be 46. I think I can push myself for the next year and a half and then reevaluate, you know?”
Nearly 18 months later, Scott is still chasing that final piece — the one that will make him feel like his golf journey is complete. While another calendar year passed without the arrival of the No. 2 major, Scott had the opportunity this past week to fulfill another of the great desires of his golfing heart, the one he was desperate to check off his list.
Win the Presidents’ Cup.
Scott made his debut in the Presidents Cup in 2003, when the Internationals and the Americans tied. Since then, Scott has made every Presidents Cup team, and the Internationals have lost them all. The cancellation of the Americans and finally the elevation of the Cup of Presidents has become a version of the indefinite business for the former statesman of the International team. He suffered tough losses in 2015 in South Korea and in 2019 in Australia, where the Internationals jumped out to a 9-5 lead before the United States rallied for a 16-14 win. On that Sunday in Australia, Scott lost his singles match to Xander Schauffele, a defeat that left a scar.
“I feel like I left the side,” Scott said Golf week Adam Schupak in 2024. “This slipped through our fingers. It was months and months and months of trying to figure out how it would slide because it felt like it was our time. It would have been an epic victory to win here. It’s something I’m still looking for in my career.”
All that brings us to last week in Medinah, where Scott and the Internationals arrived in Chicago as heavy underdogs, but with the belief that they had the culture and the players to throw the Americans. At the beginning of the week, Scott was open about his desperation to check this off his list, and the realization that eventually, maybe one day soon, he will not be in these teams is set.
“I want to win one desperately, and I don’t know how many more I can play,” Scott told Medinah.
“I feel it’s a great opportunity for me,” Scott said The Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson. “There was probably a period 10 years ago, in the middle of my career, where it was ‘Oh, this (win) is going to happen’. But now there’s not much more, that’s for sure. I’ve been given another chance. It may be the last.”
Scott and the Internationals jumped back to a lead later sweeping the Friday foursomes session and then hold back the American wave on Saturday to take a three-point lead into Sunday. It was the first time in history that the International led to enter American soil on Sunday. It seemed the stars had aligned for Scott to capture one of his remaining white whales and do so in a way that sent American golf into a tailspin. But another opportunity to take self-realization brings the same questions.
How many more chances will there be? If not now, when?
Everything seemed set for the Internationals and Scott to have a history book Sunday in Chicago. But as has been the history in the Presidents Cup, the Americans beat the Internationals in singles, storm back to win 17-13. Scott was among the losers in singles. With the Internationals gone, he needed to throw his match against Patrick Cantlay to give him hope. Instead, Cantlay buried a 57-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and Scott lost 2 and 1.
With another chance fading away, Scott sat at the podium in Medinah and was confronted with what was, what could have been and what was on the horizon. Scott praised his teammates but admitted he didn’t play well enough against the Americans.
Afterwards, Scott was asked to play for the team in 2028 or potentially captain Australia.
“I don’t know. It’s a long way. It seems like a lot of work,” Scott said Sunday with a smile and a laugh. “I don’t know. It’s a long way off. We’ll see if I am – if I can contribute to the team in any way, I’ll do everything for this team.”
Scott still has dreams to fulfill. He is still ranked 45th in the world, and his ball speed has increased. He still has the drive to be one of the best players in the world. I still believe he can add to a resume that feels light, based on his world-class talent and longevity. But he is also a realist. Time continues to move, and eventually the last of the sand will fall through the hourglass.
Eventually, your story is written in the chances that went up in smoke in your hands and in the moments of redemption that never came.
