Adam Scott seeking Royal redemption at Aus PGA

Adam Scott chatted to the media ahead of the 2023 Australian PGA Championship and a 30-year redemption is on his mind.

Adam Scott can wipe the slate clean of a junior defeat more than 30 years ago with a crowning Fortinet Australian PGA Championship title at Royal Queensland Golf Club starting Thursday.

A two-time Australian PGA champion who adorns the RQ honour boards as a two-time junior champion, Scott was reminded during Wednesday’s pro-am that he didn’t always have things his own way.

While growing up on the Gold Coast, Scott first joined Royal Queensland as an 11-year-old in awe of resident Professional, Charlie Earp.

A year later he competed in the club’s junior championship against boys as much as five years his senior, his conqueror taking a rare opportunity to remind him ahead of his 16th Australian PGA Championship.

“I bumped into one of the guys I played on the junior team with and he reminded me that I lost the junior club championship to him,” Scott recalled.

“I said, ‘But I was 12.’ He was a bit older than me.”

A decade since Scott came within a whisker of completing the Australian Triple Crown in the same year that he became the first Australian to win The Masters, the 43-year-old knows the feeling of confidence that only comes with winning.

Adamant he is not home to play second fiddle to the likes of Cam Smith, Min Woo Lee and Scottish Ryder Cup star Robert MacIntyre, Scott wants to break a winless streak now stretching back to February 2020.

“What winning does for the confidence can’t be replaced by anything else,” Scott said.

“It’s nice to play well in Bermuda, but it’s not a win. It’s hard to fake that confidence of what a win does, of closing out a tournament, of beating the entire field.

“If I were to win this week or next, I’d feel like that could be a real springboard into next year.

“It’s happened before, not just with me, but I’ve seen it with other players as well and I think all the players who are playing on other tours and heading back out next year would feel the same.

“But I’m really not going to get the same confidence from just contending and playing well.

“Taking a trophy home is a different deal.”