Adam Scott Is Finally Set to Make His Long-Awaited Return to Competitive Golf
After more than four months at home in Australia, Adam Scott has finally returned to the United States and is set to make his long-awaited return to competitive golf. He won’t be in the field this week for the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis but he will be in San Francisco for the PGA Championship next week. Upon his return, he will be the last player in the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking to return to competitive golf since the coronavirus outbreak shut down the game in mid-March.
So why did Adam Scott stay away for so long?
Adam Scott didn’t feel safe returning to the PGA Tour
When the PGA Tour shut down following the first round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, where he shot a 2-under 70, Adam Scott returned home to Australia to wait. And just like the rest of the golf world, he waited and then waited some more until the PGA Tour finally unveiled a plan in May to return to action in early June, the first tournament being the Charles Schwab Challenge. The tour put COVID-19 protocols in place but Adam Scott wasn’t satisfied with the testing. In the beginning, players weren’t getting test results back in an overly timely fashion and that was a major concern for Scott (h/t Golf.com).
“They are being fairly thorough, but my initial reaction was I was surprised it wasn’t tighter than it is.
“What concerns me is dialogue that (the Tour) is hopeful of returning one or two-hour test (results). You’d want that in place before competing.
“The other (concern) is it seems an asymptomatic person could operate within a tournament. If they’re not showing symptoms and I somehow picked it up inside the course and I’m disqualified, I’m now self-isolating (in that city) for two weeks. I’d be annoyed if that happened. I thought you’d start quite tight and loosen those protocols to normal if appropriate.”
Adam Scott
Luckily for Adam Scott, as well as every other golfer and caddie, the PGA Tour has improved its testing since restarting the season and results are coming back within a matter of hours.
How has Adam Scott played in 2020?
To close out 2019, Adam Scott won the Australian PGA Championship to collect his 11th European Tour title. It was his first win of any kind since March 2016 when he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
After taking seven weeks off, he made his return to the U.S. and picked up right where he left off in Australia, winning the Genesis Invitational at famed Riviera Country Club, a course he’s always enjoyed playing. It was his 14th PGA Tour win.
Following his win at Riviera, Adam Scott teed it up at the WGC-Mexico Championship and tied for 26th. He then played the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and missed the cut before that 2-under round of 70 at The Players.
He should be in the U.S. for quite a while
Once Adam Scott completes the PGA Championship, it stands to reason that he’d remain in the United States for quite some time. He’s currently in 33rd place in the FedEx Cup standings, which should easily qualify him for the Northern Trust and the BMW Championship. He’ll likely drop a few spots by missing out on the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational this week but should be in a good position to make a run at the top 30 to get into the Tour Championship.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin just 11 days following the final round of the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open starts just 10 days after the Tour Championship concludes. So it looks as if we’ll be seeing a lot more of Adam Scott in the coming weeks.
