Adam Scott Moving In The Right Direction
Adam Scott came to East Lake in the middle of the pack, but through two rounds in on the verge of leaving with $11.4 million and the FedEx Cup for his efforts.
Scott, 31, has been knocking at the door ever since he arrived on the scene and started winning golf tournaments. It started at the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship at the tender age of 23 and Scott seemed a natural for the rigors of PGA Tour competition.
When he won twice in 2004 with one of those wins THE PLAYERS Championship, Scott was a hot commodity, but even with four more wins in six years, Scott was losing his star power and more importantly he was losing confidence, especially on the greens.
So over the last year Scott changed caddies, bringing Steve Williams, previously of Tiger Woods fame and switched to a broom stick putter in February and since then it has been the Scott of old winning his first World Golf Championship event at the Bridgestone Invitational in August and now the 36-hole leader at The TOUR Championship.
"I've got to win, and I imagine Webb (Simpson) must have to finish pretty lowly to give me a chance," Scott said of his FedEx Cup chances. "I just figured if I win this week, I'll be happy no matter what. I'll finish what I think has been a really good season, moving in the right direction with everything, and look forward to next season. I couldn't wait for it to start if I were to win this week. "
In what could only be characterized as an up-and-down round, Scott had three bogeys over the first six holes, dropping him far down the leaderboard, but five birdies in six holes, from the seventh to the 12th and then consecutive birdies on the final two holes for the second day in a row produced a 5 under, 65, tying Korean K.J. Choi and David Toms for the second best score of the day, Bubba Watson shot a 64.
"After hitting the fairway on seven, I just said to myself, this is the time where you just take dead aim and you stand up and hit a golf shot," Scott said of the inner kick in the rear he gave himself. "The way I'm playing, I should be able to do that, because I feel like I'm swinging the club really well, and that's what I did and took advantage of it and then just went on from there."
Stuart Hall is editor of the Golf Press Association.
