CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Adam Scott set his feet in the closely mowed, morning dew-draped grass, waggled his club behind a ball and swiped backward, then forward. About 30 feet away, the ball he struck landed among a swarm of practice balls, hopped twice and disappeared into the cup.
The Australian veteran turned to his caddie, laughed and walked toward the practice bunker as if to say, “Not going to get any better than that.” He punched his bag of practice balls and scattered them in the sand, ready to tackle the next piece of his game.
Golfers — even the best in the world — don’t always expect to make the spectacular shot look routine. Chipping in from off the green, for instance, is a bonus to an otherwise well-struck shot.
But “spectacular” is an adjective the International team will have to channel and exhibit this week during the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow if it hopes to compete with — and, it hopes, defeat — the United States in the biennial international golf showcase.
And Adam Scott, a veteran of multiple international competitions and a PGA Tour champion 14 times over — including a Masters win — knows that how the team’s younger players handle the pressure will be the key.
“I don’t feel like I need to stand there and fire these kids up,” Scott said. “They’re so excited to be on this team. They just need to know they’ve got the support of the experience in myself and Hideki (Matsuyama), let’s say, and then also the assistants and (captain) Trevor (Immelman) if they need it. But you want to run with the excitement while it’s naturally there, and I think it’s refreshing to see it.”
Scott is a veteran among a multitude of rookies on this International team, and will be counted on to match up against some of the best in the United States, and the world. He’s also going to be almost like a playing captain. Immelman knows he can count on Scott to be a calming influence.
“These (rookies) are just so excited to be here,” Immelman said. “For a guy like Tom Kim, to be hanging out with guys like Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama, I wish you could have seen his face. It’s pure joy and excitement.”
Matsuyama is another well-known International player with a winning pedigree. He’s won eight times on the PGA Tour, and finished in the Top 5 in majors three times, including a tie for fifth in the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. He’s able to bring some course knowledge and a little bit of international match-play experience to the fold.
“(The rookies) rely on the guys that have been here a bunch,” Immelman said. “I mean, this is Adam Scott’s 10th Presidents Cup. He’s setting a record for the International team this week, first guy to get to double digits. And so guys like him and Hideki and even Sungjae (Im), this is his second time, but he’s an extremely accomplished golfer. Those youngsters lean on guys like that.”
Despite the team’s relative youth, and widely reported lack of experience, there is a feeling among them that the “impossible” isn’t so, well, impossible.
Why?
“Because they’re all elite athletes,” Immelman said. “They’re all elite athletes, and they got to elite level playing on the PGA Tour. You don’t get here by accident, man, I can promise you. You don’t get here by accident.
“You put a ton of work in. You dedicate your life to it. You make sacrifice after sacrifice, investing time and money and blood, sweat and tears to get to this level. You don’t just wake up one morning and get onto the PGA Tour. These players are legit, all 24 of them.”
U.S. captain Davis Love III is keenly aware his team is the favorite, but he’s also wary of what a team can play like when they feel they have nothing to lose.
“We come into these things wanting to win every time, obviously,” Love said. “And what I tell them, I’ve told several teams, unfortunately, we’ve had some teams that haven’t been winning every time. I tell them, you don’t have a record. This 12 has never competed as a team before. So you’re 0-0.”
And with Scott figuring to be heavily involved in matches all four days of the competition, along with Matsuyama, there figures to be plenty of fight from this week’s underdog squad.
“I think I’m leaning into the younger guys because of their enthusiasm and everything,” Scott said. “I think it’s good for like an old dog like me to see that.
“They really don’t have anything to lose at all,” he added, “and the stage is there for them to completely show off, and I really feel like if we want to push the Americans this week to a place where we can win, we have to really let loose on the course.”
