Adam Scott chipped one-handed eating a sausage roll … but he needs a bigger party trick now
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Two videos of Adam Scott went viral on social media this week: one of him chipping one-handed while eating a sausage roll, the other far more entertaining.
Less than 24 hours before his tee time in the opening round, arguably Australia’s best male golfer since Greg Norman was taking short-game lessons from another playing professional.
In the chipping area at Royal Queensland, Scott went backwards and forwards with his arc, rotating his wrists, watching the plane of his swing, looking up and down from a bunker at Brett Rumford for counsel.
Rumford, renowned as a wizard around the greens, is of the same vintage as Scott and is much more a friend than foe.
“We just caught up as mates the other day,” Rumford laughed. “We just like to talk some s—.”
In between times, though, there was serious business. Did Scott get anything from the impromptu coaching session?
Adam Scott on the party hole at Royal Queensland.Credit: Getty
“I think so,” Rumford says. “Moving forward I think he’s got a better understanding of how his right arm mechanics are going to work, and his hands. It just looked a whole lot better. I would like to think I’d teach myself out of a job.”
At 43, Scott will enter the final day of the Australian PGA Championship as a former world No.1, Australia’s only Masters winner and a Presidents Cup ornament in the unusual position of having more to prove than his 25-year-old rival, Min Woo Lee, who is on the cusp of his most significant win at home.
Scott knows he’s on the clock.
As good as his body looks and feels, it won’t last forever. As consistent as he’s been throughout his career, he hasn’t won a tournament in the COVID era. For the past year, he felt like he had to be absolutely perfect just to keep pace with the young bucks swarming professional golf.
Saturday provided another example of how hard it can be for the 40-somethings to win these days. Lee (-17) has one hand on the Joe Kirkwood Cup after a third round five-under 66, extending his lead to three strokes from Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino (-14). He barely raised a sweat in doing so.
The longer the tournament goes, the more comfortable Lee looks, and the more the pace stretches Scott (-11), who had a day of near misses for an even-par 71. Lee was walking in putts like he was Tiger Woods. Scott is one of the few who can remember what it was like against The Cat in his pomp.
Late in the third round after what was shaping as a solid day, Scott stumbled with two bogeys in three holes, and Lee kept pouring on the pressure. Lee started the day one shot ahead of Scott and ended six up on him.
“The momentum really changed and Min had a couple of birdies [on the back nine],” said Scott, who lipped out for birdie on the last. “We went from being quite close, and I’m a long way back now. I’ve got a lot of work to do [on Sunday]. Someone’s going to run hot early. Hopefully, it’s me.”
After he made birdie on 16 and Scott scuffed his way to a bogey, Lee pumped his fist and walked under the tunnel to the party hole 17th where Eye Of The Tiger blasted from the speakers.
Both Lee and Scott flew their wedges long for their balls to rest at the bottom of a grandstand full of well-marinated Queenslanders before signing for pars.
Asked whether he felt it was his tournament to lose, Lee said: “I mean, yeah. [Sunday] is another day and I can just control what I do.
“I expected myself to play pretty well. I’ve been hitting the ball well all year. [The Australian PGA] is definitely on the schedule. Any win is awesome. I have the potential to win, but I only have three wins, so it’s not like it comes often. Any time you win it’s an amazing feeling.”
Just ask Scott. If he can find one from here, the one-handed sausage roll chip will be the least of his party tricks.
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