It’s been a decade since Adam Scott shot a then-course-record 64 to win the now-defunct Grand Slam of Golf at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. He was the reigning Masters champion at the time and on the verge of reaching world No. 1. This week, he returns to compete there for the first time at the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship and listed a variety of reasons for doing so.
“I think whenever you’re coming back to a place where you’ve had good results, there’s a positive vibe, that’s for sure,” he said Tuesday during a pre-tournament interview.
Scott, 43, who hails from Australia and is gearing up to play some events in his native land later this month, was a late addition to the field. He appeared in Boston at Fenway Park on Monday for the official announcement of his role on Boston Common, one of six franchises in TGL, the new tech-forward, prime-time team golf league developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports in partnership with the Tour.
“This time of year I’m really not around the East Coast normally,” he said.
The other draw for Scott is to end his more than three-year drought without a victory, which dates to the 2020 Genesis Invitational. Scott had a pedestrian season by his standard, recording four top-10 finishes in 18 starts. He’s dropped from 72nd in the FedEx Cup standings to 85th while playing just once during the FedEx Cup Fall to date.
“I’m not going to get results being on the couch at home,” said Scott, who is seeking a 15th Tour title. “I’m here to try and win this golf tournament. I’ve been working at a lot of different things in my game and I’m trying to put it all together here this week.”
At just 21 square miles in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda isn’t a big island but it loves its golf, boasting four championship golf courses and a handful of shorter courses. It gives Bermuda one of the highest ratios of golf courses to land area in the world. Port Royal was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., and plays 6,828 yards, making it the island’s longest test but the shortest on the Tour.
Scott has been pleased with his driving this season, which may allow him to take advantage of his length, and calls his putting the strongest part of his game. He’s hard at work trying to improve on a part of his game that he sees as a glaring weakness.
“If we’re going to look at the stats this year, my iron play was the worst,” he said. “I think I was about 18th in strokes gained driving, so I didn’t feel too bad about that, but my iron play is stand-out terrible this year. So I’ve been addressing that and I’ve made some equipment changes and, you know, testing some of that stuff still this week.”
Nevertheless, Scott enters this week as the second-highest ranked player in the field at No. 45 in the world behind only Lucas Glover (No. 31) and a favorite among the field of 132 to hoist the trophy on Sunday.
“Many different times in my career I’ve come to events as the favorite, world No. 1 or in good form with expectations being high,’’ he said. “That’s what I like, that’s the environment I want to be in. If it is the case this week that I feel like I’m the best player here, it might help me perform a little bit better.
“I don’t fight pressure like that, you can feed off that expectation a little bit.”
Asked if there was anything off the course that he was looking forward to doing during his visit to the tropical paradise, Scott, an avid surfer, gave one more reason he was excited to be back at Bermuda.
“Getting in the ocean, that’s what I miss most of the year everywhere I go,” he said. “And the water looks beautiful, so I can’t wait to get in the ocean.”
