FILE PHOTO: Golf - European Tour - BMW PGA Championship - Wentworth, Virginia Water, Britain - September 16, 2023 Australia's Adam Scott in action during the third round Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs/File Photo
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - It has been nearly four years since Adam Scott tasted victory, leaving the former world number one desperate to break the drought at this week's Australian PGA Championship.
Scott has played solid golf since his last win at the Genesis Invitational in California in 2020, and finished tied for fifth at this month's Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
However, the 43-year-old's near-misses have generated frustration as well as encouragement.
"It’s nice to play well ... (but) I obviously haven’t found it that easy to win over the last couple of years,” Australia's first and only Masters winner told reporters on Wednesday.
"I played well in Bermuda but it’s not a win, and it’s hard to fake that confidence of closing out a tournament, and beating the entire field."
Scott is among the headliners at Royal Queensland this week, just shaded by compatriot Cameron Smith, the defending champion and British Open winner, for pulling power.
Scott won the first of his two Australian PGA Championship trophies 10 years ago in his prime and the second in 2019.
Less than two months after winning the 2019 event, he broke a four-year victory drought on the U.S. PGA Tour by claiming the Genesis Invitational.
Naturally, Scott will hope his home event can be the circuit-breaker again.
"I feel like I’ve got all the game to win more. I’m healthy still and at 43 moving well.
"If I were to win this week or next week (at the Australian Open) it could be a springboard."
Scott and Smith ended up on opposing sides of the golfing schism wrought by LIV Golf, the former being the president of the U.S. tour's players' advisory council and the latter a staunch member of the Saudi-backed breakaway series.
The rival circuits, along with the European DP World Tour, announced plans in June to merge and end the sport's bitter divide.
The merger is supposed to be ratified by the end of the year but an ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe into anti-trust issues has raised concerns the deal may be delayed.
Scott said it was "really hard" to know if the tie-up would go through.
"There’s four or five other interested parties in investing in the PGA Tour like PIF," he added, referring to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
"So management have a lot of work to do to get some final deals on the table."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
