WORDS WITH … ADAM SCOTT, DEFENDING CHAMPION
Q. What were you thinking about a score today?
A. I still felt like even going to the back nine, if I could post 4 under, if I stood here with 4 under right now, you never know. And that's what I was trying to work towards. Just the story of my weekend with some sloppy stuff around the greens and that doesn't bode well here.
Q. What was the difference for you this year?
A. It's not been my best week with the putter. My pace was off on the long putts. And when it gets on fire around here, you're going to have a lot of long putts. And I left so much work with them that nothing was (within) talking distance. And I missed my share of them and had some three-putts and it just makes it very hard to have really good scores every day around here.
Q. What’s your takeaway from the week there?
A. I've enjoyed the week thoroughly. … It's been a week I'll never forget, the experiences I've had in playing a tournament as the defending champion. And as a champion and all the ovations that you receive around here is amazing memories for me. I think as far as my game goes, I was really happy with where I put myself on Friday night. And without over-analyzing it, it's always a bit here or there, but a poor nine holes on Saturday stopped all my momentum and had me on the back foot and I just couldn't go anywhere from there. And that's what it's like at majors. You're nine good holes from winning it and nine bad holes from being out of it.
WORDS WITH … BERNARD LANGER, FORMER CHAMPION
Q. In recent Masters, you went from missing six cuts to 25th last year to tied for six this year. Is it showing your game is getting even better?
A. My game has been good, even when I missed a cut. I've had some very good rounds here. I just had one round where I messed up and it's easily done here. It doesn't take much — a couple of inches — to decide between a birdie and a bogey here. That's the type of golf course we're facing. But I've been playing some very good golf the last eight or 10 years. So it's not that, it's just putting four good rounds together.
Q. Do you take pride that six 50-plus players made the cut here and what kind of statement is it?
A. What do you think? I think everybody can figure that out. There's a lot of good over-50 players. We can compete at the highest level and even on a very, very long golf course like this one.
Q. Why do you think that’s truer today than it was 10 years ago? Attention to fitness, familiarity with the courses?
A. I think the guys stay in better shape and they know that there's a great tour with the Champions Tour waiting for them. In their late 40s, they don't kind of quit and say I'm kind of done. They're actually maybe working harder at it, knowing they're going to have five or 10 years, maybe more on the Champions Tour. So they focus on that and they pace themselves. A lot of guys used to say. "I don't want to be on the Senior Tour so I'll just quit when I'm 40 or 45 or something like that." And it's all changed now. Everybody that comes out, they're always the same, so it's going to be bittersweet leaving the PGA Tour and the European Tour to play on the Champions Tour … this is where I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life playing golf. It's that much fun.
Q. This tournament in particular, does it speak to the value of experience that not only the six guys that made the cut … that experience here really does matter?
A. Experience matters, yeah. I mean I was hitting balls next to Rory McIlroy this morning and I hit a 4-iron on to that green on the range and he was next to me and I saw his ball land right where my 4-iron landed. And I said, "What club is that?" And he said 6-iron. So he's hitting two clubs less. And then he hits his drive probably 40 yards past me. He's got a 60 yard advantage on every hole. That's huge. He's hitting a 9-iron when I'm hitting six clubs more, a 3-iron, into the green. … And you've just got to be so precise here. And the targets are so small. You're seeing these big greens, but we've got to hit an area that's 4-by-4. If you don't hit that, you just might as well put a three-putt down or something like that.
WORDS WITH … KEVIN STADLER
Q. How do you feel about Augusta National and how excited would you be to return next year?
A. I felt when I came out here a couple of weeks ago that the golf course suits my game. And I made a lot of very obvious rookie errors out there with (giving) a number of shots away: just getting out of position from the middle of the fairway with short irons; sometimes being overly cautious; sometimes being too aggressive, just missing them on both sides. I made a couple of bogeys on No. 14 from the middle of the fairway from 140 yards and two of them on No. 17 from the middle of the fairway. … I drove the ball great. I usually drive it pretty well. And that's going to tee you up perfectly for this golf course. And the strength of my game is driving and short irons. So you drive it in the fairway, you can have short irons all day long out here and it suits me pretty well.
Q. With a top-12 finish, you’ll be back next year and your dad, former champion Craig Stadler, said he would have to think of the idea of retiring from competition here. What do you think?
A. I don't know what he's going to do. It's been a great week having him be out here. It would be cool if he played again. I totally get it if he doesn't want to. The golf course is too long, too tough for him anymore. But I think he would still plan on coming out, regardless, playing the par-3 and all that stuff. But he loves coming here. But his scores don't show (it), but he's still super competitive and he hates putting up the numbers that he puts up around here. It wouldn't surprise me if he's gone but I'd prefer him to come back.
About the Author
