MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Adam Scott was a fresh face at age 23 and getting feisty under the darkening sky in South Africa. The Presidents Cup was tied. Ernie Els and Tiger Woods were in a tense playoff when the captains agreed to a tie, meaning the Americans would keep the cup as defending champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep playing,\u201d Scott shouted. They ultimately agreed to share the cup.<\/p>\n
Asked for his recollections from his 2003 debut, the 46-year-old Australian smiled and said: \u201cI think I strongly suggested that Ernie get to the 18th tee because we\u2019re playing. I was confident they could tee off. I don\u2019t know that they could have finished the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott never could have imagined then that it would be the closest he ever came to playing on a winning International team in the Presidents Cup. This week at Medinah marks his 12th consecutive appearance, tying the record held by Phil Mickelson.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another testament to a career built around a swing so pure it has kept Scott free of injury as he became only the second player to compete in at least 100 consecutive majors, and it has kept him relevant enough to be part of yet another Presidents Cup.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also one more chance, and Scott doesn\u2019t take it for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a huge opportunity for me,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThere was probably a period 10 years ago, in the middle of my career, where it was, \u2018Oh, this (winning) is going to happen.\u2019 But now there\u2019s not many more, that\u2019s for sure. I\u2019ve been given another chance. It might be the last one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Internationals gathered for the team photo Wednesday morning, and it was only fitting that Scott had a place next to the gold trophy, with lifelong friend and International captain Geoff Ogilvy on the other side.<\/p>\n
One is the captain who has been the model of quiet confidence. The other is the inspiration for a team that wants to win as badly as Scott does.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s part of the International furniture now,\u201d Christiaan Bezuidenhout said. \u201cAll of us would love to win the cup, but it would be so much more special if we can do it while Adam is still in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott, coming off a runner-up finish in the BMW PGA Championship last week in England, still can find plenty of happy memories from his two-plus decades being on losing teams.<\/p>\n
He partnered with Els for a pair of foursomes victories in South Africa \u2014 \u201cHe\u2019s a bit of a god down there. That was awesome,\u201d Scott said \u2014 and he was with K.J. Choi at Royal Melbourne in 2011 when they handed Woods and Steve Stricker their worst loss (7 and 6) in team competition.<\/p>\n
But the beer-drinking celebrations with the cup in hand? Foreign territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a quarter of a century. It\u2019s his whole career,\u201d Ogilvy said. \u201cCertainly the last two or three times he\u2019s been super motivated. Like: \u2018This is something I have to do before I\u2019m done. I have to be on a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s two closest friends in golf, Ogilvy and Trevor Immelman, have been or are captains. He surely is next in line, unless there\u2019s another Presidents Cup for Scott to play. In some respects, he already is one, given his presence \u2014 his experience \u2014 in the team room and on the bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like a playing captain,\u201d Ogilvy said. \u201cYou can hear in his voice his desire to win this tournament. He\u2019s the leader of the players, clearly, and he\u2019s embracing that role now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott started his Presidents Cup career playing alongside Els and Retief Goosen, Nick Price and Vijay Singh, all of them in the World Golf Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s with Ryo Hisatsune and Tom Kim, who weren\u2019t even born when Scott turned pro.<\/p>\n
South Africa wasn\u2019t the only close call. It went down to the final match in 2005 in Virginia and in 2015 in South Korea. The Internationals had the lead going into Sunday singles at Royal Melbourne in 2019 until the Americans rallied behind Woods, a playing captain, and finally secured victory in the 11th of 12 matches.<\/p>\n
But it was another loss, and two more followed after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s come down to the last hole several times, and they can go any way. And it hasn\u2019t gone our way,\u201d Scott said. \u201cFor me, of course, I want to win one desperately and I don\u2019t know how many more I can possibly play in. But it\u2019s a team effort to do it. We all have to want it so badly. I think it would be an amazing experience for us all to win this cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full golf coverage here <\/p>\n
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Adam Scott was a fresh face at age 23 and getting feisty under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}