ORLANDO, FLORIDA // Adam Scott is hoping that defending champion Bubba Watson does not dish out some exotic fare at the annual champions dinner on April 8 at Augusta National.
Or anything boldly basic, for that matter, like macaroni and cheese.
“I don’t eat cheese at all,” Scott said last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “I’m really hoping that’s not on the menu. That’s how I keep my slender figure.”
The former world No 1 drew laughs, which was his intention, then spent the rest of the week on a self-imposed bread-and-water diet on the Bay Hill Club & Lodge’s putting greens.
Scott, the 2013 Masters champion and one of the most popular and personable stars in golf, this year switched to a conventional-length putter in anticipation of the worldwide ban on anchoring, which begins January 1.
Over the past two weeks in steamy Florida, Scott looked like a man trying to kill mosquitoes with a stick.
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By any measure, barring a late return to the broom model he used to ascend into the world top five, his chances of contending at Augusta National seem as slim as his waistline.
Five seasons ago, Scott was one of the worst putters from inside 10 feet on the PGA and European tours, and the broom model was an inarguable panacea for his short game.
When the game’s rule makers decided two years ago to ban the anchoring of putters to the chest or abdomen, the worry was that Scott, among others, would be affected.
Few thought it would be this horrific.
After a fine week at the Cadillac Championship outside Miami, where he finished in a tie for fourth in his 2015 debut, Scott left skid marks on the greens in Tampa and Orlando.
At the Valspar Championship, he missed four putts from inside five feet and ranked 141st in a field of 144 in the PGA Tour’s strokes gained-putting measure, considered the best yardstick of success on the greens.
Put in digestible terminology, he lost 7.8 strokes to the field on the greens. Worse, he missed the cut, snapping at 45 his streak of playing on weekends, the longest run on the US tour. Last week at Bay Hill produced another struggle, admittedly on greens that were unusually slow and far below typical professional standards.
Scott had five misses from inside five feet, 11 misses from inside 10 feet and lost 4.1 shots to the field on the greens.
Now ranked fifth in the world, he finished joint 35th.
It can be cringe inducing to watch, especially since the Aussie ranks second on the US tour in driving distance, second in ball-striking and first in greens in regulation, all key metrics.
But the other 13 clubs in the bag do not matter much if the player cannot steer the ball in the hole.
Scott ranks 186th among 211 players this season in strokes gained on the green and, while making sweeping assumptions based on 10 rounds can be risky, Augusta National assuredly has the most daunting, complex putting surfaces on the planet.
Scott is hopeful that putter designer Scotty Cameron can produce a new conventional-length model that meets his needs. As soon as possible.
“A concept came out this week that is in line with kind of where I want to go with my perfect putter, so I gave him some feedback and hopefully he’ll have something pretty special soon,” Scott said at Bay Hill.
The long and short of it: over the past four years, while armed with the career-elevating anchored putter, Scott finished second, eighth, first and 14th at Augusta National.
In his nine previous Masters starts, he recorded a single top-10 finish.
Scott has amassed top-10 finishes at every major since 2011, in fact, including three at the British Open. Moreover, he finished in the top 15 at all four majors last year.
A retreat to the broom model would be viewed as a red flag of failure by purists, but it would conceivably provide him four more cracks at winning a major in 2015 before he is forced to use the conventional model next year.
Not an easy decision, but anything else feels like short shrift to both his game and fans.
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