Flashback to July 22, 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Anne's Golf Club during the 2012 Open Championship. Scott opened the tournament with a course record first round six under par 64. He tacked on a second round score of 67 and shot a third round score of 68 to lead the field heading into Sunday. A shaky start in the final round, bogeying 2 of the first 3 holes was but a mere shadow of what was to eventually be one of the hardest in Adam Scott's life. Scott had a four stroke advantage heading to the 15th tee. It was all downhill from there. The day ended with Ernie Els inheriting his second Claret Jug, and Adam Scott in disbelief as he had given away his best chance at his first major victory by bogeying the last 4 holes. This collapse was to be in the ranks of the worst in PGA history.
Flash forward to Wednesday April 10th. The 2 headlines that were dominating news stands prior to the first round of the 2013 Masters Tournament were 1) Tiger Woods was back and ready to lay claim to his 5th green jacket (first since 2005) and 2) 14 year old Tianlang Guan who had qualified for this years Masters by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. Some analysts were predicting Rory McIlroy would win due to his recent performance at the Texas Open just before traveling to Augusta. Others debated how three time winner Phil Mickelson would fair. No one mentioned Adam Scott.
When Sunday rolled around, Tiger was three under and in contention. However his 2 stroke penalty assessed to his second round score held him back from what would have been tied for fourth. Tianlang Guan had managed to miraculously make the cut and was the low amateur of the tournament. Rory was out of contention due to a score of 79 the round before. Mickelson was having one of his worst Masters performances and Angel Cabrera and Brandt Snedeker were co leaders at seven under with the Aussie Adam Scott quietly sitting in third place at six under.
The beauty in this was that Australian players Jason Day and Marc Leishman had been the Aussie names on top of the leader board on Thursday and Friday. Heading into the weekend, an Aussie victory seemed almost imminent with those two dominating the course. Yet when the Aussie victory came, it was from neither.
Adam Scott had quietly worked his way up the leader board to one back of the leaders facing Sunday. Sunday. The day that was made for golf's finest, most historic moments. Sunday. The day that had conquered Scott less than a year ago at Royal Lytham & St. Anne's Golf Club. Sunday. The day that Scott would have to wrestle to the ground in order to earn his first major title. And wrestle to the ground he did.
Justice was done as Scott holed his birdie putt at the 18th to take sole possession of the lead of the Masters on Sunday with one group out on the course. But much the Adam's dismay, he hadn't won quite yet. Cabrera also had a clutch birdie to force Scott into a playoff at the Masters on Sunday (can you feel the pressure?). However this time fortune favored the Aussie as it only took him two playoff holes to defeat the Argentinian Cabrera. Scott knocked down a 12 foot birdie putt on the 10th hole to win his first major championship. Justice had been served, and the monkey on his back was replaced with golf's greatest prize as the green jacket, for the first time in history, had gone down under.
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