13 Aug 2021 | Professional golf |
Scott pushes his playoffs case
by Martin Blake
Although he’s in danger of missing the PGA Tour playoffs for the first time in 15 years, Adam Scott has found some of his best form at the Wyndham Championships in North Carolina today.
Scott shot a four-under par 66 in the opening round to put himself in the mix, carding seven birdies for the day.
The Wyndham is the last regular-season event on tour prior to the playoffs for the top 125 players only.
Highlights today included a stunning long-iron shot at the long par-three 12th hole that came to rest inside a metre from the flag, and a 350-metre tee shot on the par-four 18th. Scott is 121st on the Fedex Cup standings having reached the playoffs in every season since the system began in 2007.
“Yeah, it was important to get off to a good start today because that's kind of been the theme of the year is go backwards on Thursday and then fight my way back,” he said after his round.
“So to kind of move in the right direction felt good. I hit a lot of good iron shots, a couple bogeys that were a bit soft, but hopefully I can have a couple days where I clean them up and get myself right in the mix.”
Scott said he was hellbent on playing better, regardless of his position on the standings.
“Obviously the season hasn't gone how I wanted and I feel like I'm kind of playing with house money. I mean, I'm not really thinking about it, I'm more interested in getting my game into the shape I feel it should be, and it's getting closer. I would like to play well this week and get a chance to play next week and keep getting my game into place. It's hard to improve your game when you don't have a chance to play, so at the moment my goal is to just keep playing week after week.”
Scott is four shots from the lead held by American Russell Henley (62).
Another player on the bubble, Victorian Cameron Percy, shot an opening 67 to give himself a chance of getting through to next week’s first playoff event, the Northern Trust.
Percy is ranked 133rd coming into this event and still needs to climb further up the leaderboard to progress to the playoffs.
There will be at least four Australians in the playoff series – Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Jason Day.
Meanwhile Queenslander Maverick Antcliff opened with a 68 in the Cazoo Classic on the European Tour to sit inside the top 10.
At the LPGA Tour's Scottish Women's Open, Katherine Kirk and Whitney Hillier opened with even-par 72s to lead the Australians on a day interrupted by bad weather.
The last Australian in the men’s US Amateur, Queenslander Louis Dobbelaar, has been knocked out in the round of 64 matches at Oakmont.