U.S. OPEN NOTEBOOK: Scott’s Back Nine Stunts Major Chances

OAKMONT, Pa. — If there was a sentimental favorite during Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open, it was 44-year-old Adam Scott.

The Australian is well liked among his peers, fans and the media alike. His win would have been a popular one as he teed it up in his 96th consecutive major appearance.

“Obviously as a person I’d love Scotty to win, I know him really well,” fellow U.S. Open competitor Ryan Fox explained with a quip. “Not quite a New Zealander. We’re not going to claim him. Aussies claim enough of our stuff. We’re not going to claim him. He’s a great ambassador for the southern hemisphere. I know all of Australia will be tuning in early in the morning to watch. I’m sure there will be a lot of New Zealanders watching as well and pulling for him.”

Of course, there were some hoping he would pull through given is chances of competing but coming out the rain delay, Scott was not as sharp, missing right frequently and fading with a back nine 41 which saw him fall out of the top 10.

“It was bad conditions,” Scott simply put. “No one really had a good score. I missed the fairway. I hadn’t done that all week really. Then I did, and I paid the price and lost a lot of shots out there. Couldn’t recover. Conditions were just tough. They were tough at the start. It was very windy. Hadn’t been that windy all week. Front nine played tough. Then once the fairways were soaked, it was very hard controlling the golf ball.”

Scott further explained that he felt better before the rain delay and his tee shots were hard to recover from.

While the delay helped J.J. Spaun to the extent of winning his first major, it had the opposite effect for Scott.

“These kinds of things happen all the time,” he explained. “Some people go home, and some people get a bit rowdier when you come back out. It’s a slightly different atmosphere. It can affect the rhythm of things. Unfortunately, I think the course just couldn’t take much more water really. I didn’t adapt to those conditions well enough.”

FOX OVERCOMES ADVERSITY TO SHOOT UNDER PAR

Fox stepped to the first tee as part of the 10:20 tee time, except with Corey Conners’ withdrawal, the New Zealander became the entire 10:20 tee time.

Fox had gone as a single once before during the 2023 U.S. Open, going around LACC in just over three hours on a two-ball with a marker, but in this situation Conners came up to the driving range to inform that he had withdrawn due to a wrist injury suffered in an Oakmont Country Club bunker during Saturday’s third round.

“I was looking forward to playing with him, he’s a really nice guy,” Fox noted. “It’s frustrating in the middle of the field to be a one-ball than it is at the start, but I had a great marker from here, Gavin, who’s one of the assistant pros. We chatted all the way around. Thankfully it’s two-ball and kind of moves pretty quickly for the most part. I waited on most shots, but it wasn’t for that long. It was just a nice, leisurely stroll out there. To be honest, I probably would have waited a whole lot less if I hadn’t had played as well as I did.

“I got a few jokes about being a single and people coming out and going, ‘I’ll be your partner and go out and shoot 150.’ I’m sure that’s on the low side too for some of them, but it was nice out there.”

Fox shot a 1-under 69, something he was proud of, especially considering he had a stretch where he did not really see things in the previous couple of days.

“I kind of had a little patch where I made a few birdies and basically was hacking it out of the crap the rest of the day,” explained Fox. “Today was really, really solid. Probably left a couple out there on the greens, but for the most part, I kept myself out of trouble all day. I think I only missed two or three fairways and only missed two or three greens as well. If you can do that around here, it feels like there is a score. I can see the other way pretty quickly if you start missing shots. It just eats you up.”

Next week Fox is part of the final signature event on the PGA Tour calendar, the Travelers Championship, his sixth consecutive week of competition.

He admits he will not be working on much because it has been a long six weeks, which including winning events to get into both the PGA Championship and this week’s U.S. Open.

“Today was just trusting that the golf game was in good shape, and I hit a lot of good shots, had a good feeling out there,” he wrapped up. “That will kind of be the same next week, just go and trust that the game’s in decent shape and see what happens.”

THEY SAID IT

“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week. I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days. I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you. I’d hit it this far off, and seemingly every time I did, I was punished pretty severely for it. If I had four days like I did today, I think it would have been a different story. I was playing kind of behind the eight ball most of the week hitting the ball in the rough. Overall, proud of how I battled, gave myself a chance, but ultimately didn’t have enough.” Scottie Scheffler (T7)

“I would say right about now when I was told to turn right out of scoring to come talk over here. It’s a tremendous honor. Like I said yesterday, though, if you’re thinking about it out there, you’re going to get beat up pretty good. I tried to do a good job of staying in the moment and staying focused. Now for the next little while, I can start to think about that.” – Justin Hastings on winning low amateur and when it hit him

“I think, look, if I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me. I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks. Getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.” – Rory McIlroy (T19)

“(I) just didn’t have it today. Just didn’t hit it very good, and I missed way too many short putts, just didn’t make anything. It was a grind, but happy to battle back at least, and it was a very nice week. I keep progressing in the right direction, and to have a chance to win a major championship without my best stuff and not feeling very comfortable, it’s super cool. So, I’m going to take a lot of positives with me this week.” – Viktor Hovland (3)