DEAN & DELUCA Invitational
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Adam Scott
Press Conference
ROYCE THOMPSON: Adam, thank you for joining us. This is your fifth start at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. You completed the Texas Slam here in 2014. You've won twice this year, and you're second in the FedExCup. If you could just give us some thoughts about why you keep coming back to Fort Worth.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, well, it's pretty simple. It's a great venue, great golf course, a course I very much enjoy, and especially having won it just a couple of years ago. Try and keep the good vibes going here. It's exciting with a new sponsor this year. Hopefully another great event and the weather holds up for us. The course is in great shape. So I'm really looking forward to getting going and kind of trying to find that form I had in the early spring and get things going as I go into the summer with a lot of important golf to play.
ROYCE THOMPSON: And if you could just talk to us about what you've been doing to try to regain that form.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think I just kind of played so much in the spring and ran out of gas at the Masters and have just been trying to rest up and get that fresh kind of feeling happening again. Even though I've been working at my game, of course it's been balanced with enough kind of recovery time and kind of got that spring back in my step the last couple weeks. I was really close at Wells Fargo and THE PLAYERS, just didn't quite put it all together. I putted well a couple days and not the best the others, but it's been a good week off, and I feel like it'll be a nice week to put it all together here.
Q. Right now you rank first in strokes gained tee to green. You're usually very high in that category. I think you ranked first in 2010, also. Do you feel like right now your swing is as good as it's ever been tee to green?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, like for today I swung the club really well today. Generally this year I've swung the club really well. There were only a couple of weeks where I think it wasn't up to my usual standard. But through that Florida stretch and even the last couple weeks at TPC and Quail Hollow, I was swinging the club really well, so I think it's as good as ever. Always trying to get better and better, and I don't study my stats, but occasionally I look, and there are a couple areas that I'd like to improve kind of in the mid-iron range where I feel there's a bit of room for improvement maybe. But overall it's feeling really good, and that's good for this week because if I can get it in the fairway off the tee and use my ball-striking to my advantage, get a lot of looks at birdie around here, and the tough part about this course is when you're off the short grass, it's hard to scramble for the whole week and be competitive.
Q. You talked a little bit about refreshing the mental batteries a little bit. Did you do anything, do any mechanical tweaks or anything more than just kind of R & R and trying to recapture the focus?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it was a bit physical and a bit mental, I think. I played six weeks out of eight through the Masters, and that's probably a bit more than I normally do, and it caught up with me. You know, I gave myself a good break after the Masters and didn't play too much golf and tried to get back in the swing of it for Wells Fargo and THE PLAYERS and had another nice week of practice last week, and I even managed to get a surf in one day last week, and that's always a big mental recharge for me. I came away from that feeling really good.
Like I said, I kind of have that spring back in my step again and ready to tackle this event and what's coming this summer.
Q. We listened to some of the contenders last week talk about their swings and not really feeling like they've swung it at their peak potential. What does it take and how did you learn how to be able to contend and maybe win without your best swing?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I think experience counted for a lot in that department, and some of the greatest players ever have talked about contending or winning without their "A" game, I guess. You know, Tiger kind of showed everyone he could win without his "A" game, and if he had his "A" game he beat everyone by a lot. Jack Nicklaus did the same. To win 18 majors and be close so many times, he can't have been firing every one of them. It's experience and course management and all these things that you get over time being out here.
But in saying that, I think with all of the stats and information that's gathered now, some of these young guys can learn to manage their games a lot quicker just through some of the stats that are provided now, and if that information is given to them in the right way, they can gain that experience early.
That's the big difference I see with all the young players now. They're so much more mature at a young age from a course management side of things. They manage their game well and understand how they need to -- how they can effectively get the ball around the golf course.
Q. To follow up, how would you use those stats to help improve course management in that way?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, you know, I think for me and guys older than me, a lot of learning how to manage your game was kind of trial and error. Now there is so much information of going for a green in two and what happens on certain holes, how everyone else did going for it, the percentages of converting that to a birdie and the risk and reward. It's not just off what your impression is, it's actual facts of 58 percent of the time guys convert this into a birdie or just hitting driver up there is better being 130 out in the rough than being 170 out in the fairway, that it's actually better to be up closer to the hole, and that sounds obvious, but if you're in the rough, you may not have thought that.
I think there's a lot of stuff like that. Information has become available over the last years that's helpful in course management, and therefore if you're not playing your best and you putt well, you can kind of work your way around the golf course a little better.
Q. Did it surprise you to run out of gas after the Masters as you described, and then how big of a challenge is that going to be over the next couple months with all of the golf that's left to be played?
ADAM SCOTT: I think it just got away from me a little bit, and I just was playing so well, and I was feeling pretty good that I just kept playing and didn't realize how much of a toll the run through Florida and the Match Play took out of me going into the Masters, and it was a pretty big stretch to there in that week before the Masters. It was just tough to get through the practice sessions and stay on top of everything.
I was just a bit flat, and that's my own fault for scheduling it that way. So I don't think it's going to be a big problem upcoming. I think I've kind of taken the precautions that I've needed to and balanced my schedule out. This summer is going to be tough for everybody, stop, start, week on, week off, and lots of golf. There are four of the biggest tournaments of the year in seven weeks for me. You know, you're going to have to really plan those weeks off to give yourself enough rest time but also enough time to be back in form for the next week.
Q. Are there some courses out there that reward more of an artistic or feel approach as opposed to technical approach, and if so, where does Colonial rank on that particular scale?
ADAM SCOTT: Probably, yes. I think still most of the more traditional style becomes reward some of that feel and -- I don't know what you want to call it, shot shaping and some of the romantic stuff from the game that there's less of these days. But I still think they do. I mean, when a course is in firm condition and there's some camber on the fairway or dogleg, and to be in the left half of the fairway is such a great reward because a tree might overhang from the right side and then you can't hit it close at all, to have the kind of control to hit it in the left half of a fairway is very strategic and also, like you're talking about, that feel element is rewarded. So I still think there is some of that. If you're skillful enough to do that, then the reward is big.
So probably courses like here at Colonial and a few of the more traditional, older-style courses, which are maybe a bit simpler in design, meant in the right way, quite nicely designed and not too tricky reward for of that kind of feel and creativity with the shaping of shots to hold it in certain parts of the golf course.
Q. Is that one of the appeals to coming here for you?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I just feel this golf course does reward the good ball-striking, and that's important. Around the greens is quite severe with poor ball-striking, you can get in some awkward spots, and it makes it difficult to have a good score. You look at holes like the 9th, to me it's not the longest hole, but it's imperative that you hit that fairway, otherwise you're under a fair bit of stress going for that green over the pond.
You know, I like the challenge of that as a change of pace from just bombing 10 drivers around a golf course. I think it kind of gives you that all-around game, which I also believe you need at major championships, whether it's just the Open Championship where you have to hit irons and hook it into a wind to hold a fairway, or depending on where the other ones are, it's not just all bombs-away driver.
ROYCE THOMPSON: Thank you, Adam, and play well this week.
ADAM SCOTT: Thank you very much.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #166 at 2016-05-25 17:34:00 GMT
