SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 7, 2021

Adam Scott

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. 17 greens today. Not going to say everything was effortless from tee to green, but it had to feel really comfortable with your ball striking today?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely. I think probably the best I've hit it in about four years for one round of golf. So that's good. I've been obviously always working on it, but kind of started feeling it there at Houston and the Masters and managed to keep in the practice something going in the right direction, so it was nice to see that on the course today.

Yeah, I left a couple out there, of course, but took me a few, almost nine holes to kind of settle in and get the speed of the greens. These are some funky greens and I just wasn't comfortable on the front and better on the back.

Q. We have heard some players say it's been a little bit slower out there on the greens than they expected, we don't expect to have as much wind either so they could get a little bit faster if they want them to, how do you adjust to the greens this week as the week goes on?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it's tough, it's one of the skills of shooting a low score around here with the rain coming down just before play, they got sticky and they did get slow. And just on some of the shorter putts there's so much slope and stuff happening around the golf course to your eye it's sometimes hard to gauge exactly how fast and how much pace you need on a putt to hold a good line and that's one of the big challenges of this course.

Q. Your schedule at the beginning of the year is sometimes you play late into the following year and then take some time off. Deciding to be here this year, what do you want this week to be for your 2021 campaign?

ADAM SCOTT: Well, I kind of need to get it going. I had a pretty light campaign generally last year, like really light and really average too after COVID. We returned from the break and the Australian tournaments were cancelled, so that gave me the break at the end of the year that I don't normally get and I was very excited to be coming back here. I love coming and playing over here, it's been awhile, and a good way for me to kind of kick start my FedExCup run. And I'll play next week and Farmers as well and hopefully keep striking it like this and get a few putts to drop and I'll be in good shape.

Q. Pretty decent start and usually you have the excuse of having momentum from the Aussie summer, this time you maybe have the excuse of having some rest, which has worked best for you?

ADAM SCOTT: No, it was good, I mean I was just most pleased with the way I hit the ball. I was getting there at Houston and the Masters, but kind of was interrupted, my practice around that time, with COVID. I've been hitting a lot of balls in a simulator, so they look good for about 10 feet at least.

But it was nice, probably the best ball striking round I've had in about five years, so I feel like that's something good to start the year out with.

Q. That was a strength of yours for a long time, what about it made you feel like that?

ADAM SCOTT: Just the quality of iron shot, the proximity to the hole. I drove the ball really nicely today. I mean, it is a nice course to get the confidence up, the fairways are wider, but you still with the wind and the elevation you got to be a little bit careful. I drove it really well and also proximity was really tight. I missed a couple putts, but finally got a bit of a feel for the green on the back nine.

Q. Any sense of the break last year and the disjointed thing, taking away the momentum you had last year at this time, where, obviously, you broke your win drought. Are you looking to try to just capture it as quickly as possible?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely. I just had nothing organized coming back from COVID and that momentum was gone and I tried hard and I played okay, but okay gets average results out here.

I came up with a good plan after the Masters of what I need to do to start here and to get through the next couple months and I'll just tick that off each day and I think that will leave me in a good place.

Q. What was the plan?

ADAM SCOTT: Play better.

Q. Easier said than done.

ADAM SCOTT: Just to get on top of like every aspect of what I need to do to play well. I think at this point in my career with the years of experience and the knowledge of my own game, I mean it shouldn't be too difficult. And to do that it's just applying myself to a few areas to make sure those boxes are ticked and by the time I walk on the course I should just be able to play golf and not have to worry too much about anything else.

Q. You talk about the strike today. The 40-odd shots you hit today, how many did not come off the way you had envisioned?

ADAM SCOTT: I hit the one into 18 out of the heel a little bit, that's why it came up short, but it was a pretty severe slope. That one. It was pretty good, it was very good today, my striking.

Q. Besides play better, what are your goals, I guess, at this point in your career and going into a year?

ADAM SCOTT: It's always been winning tournaments and I would like to quickly get to 20 PGA TOUR wins at this point. I think that would be a nice little accomplishment for me and obviously winning another major and trying to do a Brooks or a Jordan or a Rory and win a few really quick. Because quick is important for me at this point.

Q. Different now than -- how have your goals changed from five or ten years ago?

ADAM SCOTT: They haven't really changed, but there's a bit more urgency about it and like I said, the plan has to be a little clearer and I know I have to be a bit more disciplined in ticking that box every day to make sure I just take a step forward and if I take a little step forward every day, then I'm going to be in a good spot.

Q. Trying to think, were you at East Lake last year?

ADAM SCOTT: No.

Q. As a member of this TOUR, when you think of someone like Schauffele, who actually had the lowest score but doesn't get credit for the win, as a TOUR member, do you like that or should there be some kind of a recognition for the lowest score?

ADAM SCOTT: I think as a whole as the TOUR we have decided that that event is not a normal event, it's the final, the TOUR Championship is now the final of the FedExCup and it doesn't run like a usual tournament. I think, yes, it's peculiar, but it's, you know, other tournaments have kind of changed their formats as well, like New Orleans did, and somewhat.

Q. Stableford, I guess.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, Stableford as well. I think somewhat there's not space for 50 stroke play events in the calendar year. I mean they can't all be serious, 72-hole events. Some of this is, of course, about competition, but it's also about entertainment, when there's so much of it, and the TOUR's got to try and find that balance.

And I think as players we all accept that it's not the TOUR Championship that we had until four years ago or whenever it was, so things have to change to get better. So hopefully it's a good move.

Q. Is there room for other formats? Stableford, maybe have match play, we're not sure about that, but...

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, match play -- it's tough, I mean I don't know, I mean there's so many events, I don't know what the right balance is and I think obviously the minds at the TOUR have to find that right balance. But things have been going fairly successfully for golf since returning from COVID at least, ratings-wise and participation-wise, generally, so we'll try and ride that wave a bit.

Q. Do you think this, the PGA TOUR is ready for a mixed team event?

ADAM SCOTT: Well, yeah, I mean there's so many events it doesn't matter. Absolutely. Like I said, I think you've got to identify that there's probably 10 or 12 serious competition events during the calendar year and then the rest is a bit of entertainment, really, and but the thing for all of us and people trying to peak for those 10 or 12 serious events is they have got to use those entertainment events to get prepared and get ready. So it's finding that balance of your schedule and also for the TOUR's schedule and what's entertaining and what, how serious it should be taken.