If golf was a beauty contest, Adam Scott’s golf swing might win every week.
The tall Aussie owns one of the world’s best swings, looks a lot like the swing Butch Harmon gave Tiger Woods back in the day when Woods stomped everyone else into the ground.
No one looks better with a club in their hands than Scott, no one has that great, graceful action that looks like it could never produce an errant shot.
Thursday at the Players Championship, that swing of Scott’s was working to pure perfection.
He had the Stadium course under his thumb. He was beating it to death, had it in a choke-hold, trying to make it tap-out.
Scott was six-under par through 16 holes with the cleanest of clean scorecards, six birdies, no bogeys.
Yet there it was in front of him.
Playing 137 yards, the beyond-infamous 17th hole was ready to give him the business. At that length, it a simple, driving-range pitching wedge for a talent like Scott. No problem for that gorgeous swing of his.
Sergio Garcia, Scott’s playing partner, showed Scott how to play the hole. Hitting first, Garcia hit his wedge just short of the hole, it one-hopped, stopped two inches behind the hole then spun back in for an ace.
Pandemonium.
After the commotion settled, Scott’s wedge was off the mark, landed in the grass right of the green and spun back into the water. “It’s the one shot I wish I had back from today,” Scott would lament afterward.
The tall Aussie took double then promptly parked his tee shot well right at 18.
It was then he made a second mortal error. He tried a hero shot and found the water with his second and it would be a double-double finish for the 2004 Players champ. “What a waste of a day,” declared observer Nick Faldo.
Scott turned 66 into 70 but it just goes to show how quickly things can turn on this stress-inducing layout contrived by Pete Dye in the late 70s.
“There’s a lot of water out here and there’s no recovering from the water,” Scott would go on to say after his horrible finish.
Interesting to note that Garcia was having one horrible day through 15. He was four-over par, suffering from an obvious Masters hangover, looking every bit like he was on his way to 76. But a birdie at 16, the ace at 17 and a nice par save at 18 turned it around for him. Seventy three is a lot better than 76 and he cut Scott by six shots on those last two holes.
That’s how crazy The Players can be.
In all there were 18 tee shots in the water at 17. It was all of 137 yards.
Scott wasn’t the only one who was ambushed down the stretch.
Defending champion Jason Day was five-under through 14 holes and he was finishing on the less-stressful front nine. But he played holes six-through-nine three-over to finish with a 70.
Rickie Fowler, the 2015 champion, found himself cruising. He was four-under through 12 but retreated and posted his own 70.
Phil Mickelson is so spooked by the place that he doesn’t even show up to play practice rounds. No practice rounds, no problem. Philly Mick posted 70.
Jordan Spieth told everyone he was ready to go. He lied. Shot 73 and he played in the morning when the getting was good.
There will be a lot more insanity over the final 54 holes before a winner is decided.
The greens will get faster and more treacherous. There is a 50 percent chance of bad weather on Saturday.
Trouble lurks everywhere.
This is one of those crazy places where things can go wrong very suddenly.
Adam Scott proved it on Thursday.
