New baby. New caddie. New putter. It's all change for Adam Scott, who makes a belated start to his season.
“Everything was getting a little boring, so I thought just change everything completely,” quipped the Aussie, who returns to tour duty bearing a traditional short-putter as his weapon of choice.
With the long, broom-handle putter set to become obsolete when new rule changes are incorporated in January 2016, Scott – just like Webb Simpson and Bradley Keegan before him – has become the latest player to revert to the traditional method.
Number one
Unlike Simpson, though, Scott has resisted the temptation to snap his old broomhandle in two.
"It treated me pretty well, I don't think it deserves a snapping," said Scott, who used the long putter to claim a maiden Major – in the 2013 Masters – and to move to number one in the world rankings. He has slipped to fifth in the latest rankings, due to a winter lay-off from golf and a time when he became a father for the first time and sought a new caddie after Steve Williams retired.
Inner resolve
In light-hearted mood, disguising the tougher inner resolve which he has shown down the stretch in tournaments, Scott recalled some of the applications he had received from prospective caddies to replace Williams.
“I got a lot of approaches, some real beauties. There was a letter from a Japanese guy, apparently related to the royal family, (and) in his letter he says he’s extremely lazy. I’ve kept it because it’s just so good and he included a picture of himself. And a guy here in Florida, also sent in a picture of himself. Big, strong guy, looks like he works out, a muscle-man kind who lives with his 85-year-old mother. Unfortunately, those ones were unsuccessful,” said Scott.
In the end, he went with the tired and trusted in hiring Mike Kerr, a Zimbabwean who previously worked with Lee Westwood, Ernie Els and more recently Thorbjorn Olesen.
The time off would seem to have fed Scott’s hunger to make 2015 a year to remember. In looking back on last season, he observed: “I was disappointed I didn’t win a Major, I felt that was my main goal and I didn’t achieve that. And I probably didn’t finish out the year as strong as I wanted the last four events. I played well but it just didn’t happen. It’s kind of a good time to get some momentum going, as Rory showed through the Open and PGA and World Golf Championship and into the (FedEx Cup) play-offs. You can really have a great run there, and I never got going.”
Short putter
Now, he is back, and back using a short putter. It’s been a while. How will he fare? “I’ve enjoyed experimenting at home. I’ve putted lots of different ways, it’s been feeling good. It’s not that big a deal .. . I think the important thing for me will be to just stay patient with it for a little bit. It’s slightly different to what I have been doing but it is not completely foreign.”
