Adam Scott has opened up his 2024 campaign with a round of typically enduring quality in the Dubai Desert Classic - but the evergreen Australian star might even have been joint-leader after the first 18 holes with a little more luck.
Scott, now 43 but still featuring in the world's top 50, opened up with a three-under-par 69 at Emirates Golf Course on Thursday, just a couple off the lead which was being shared by China's Li Haotong, England's Andy Sullivan, Dane Rasmus Hojgaard and American Cameron Young.
Yet the former Master could even have ended alongside the four pacesetters if his brilliant approach from the rough on the par-four 12th had found the hole for an eagle two, instead of ricocheting off the pin and settling some eight feet away, from where he missed his birdie putt.
