Of all the PGA Tour players to test positive for COVID-19, Adam Scott may have been the most surprising given that he hunkered down in his native Australia and delayed his return to competition until the PGA Championship in August. Count Scott among those who were surprised.
“I had no symptoms at the time I tested positive, but I developed some symptoms about 12 hours after I tested positive and I had a slight fever for 24 hours and a headache and then that kind of passed,” he said. “Then I continued to get better.”
Scott withdrew from the Zozo Championship and quarantined for 10 days, first in a hotel, then at a rental property. He purchased a putting mat and had Scotty Cameron send him some putters to tinker with but didn’t make a putter change. Still, it’s left the Australian feeling behind the 8-ball in his preparation for the Masters next week.
“Not only not getting Zozo in, not getting any practice in for those 10 days either is a little setback, but I’ve actually come out swinging good this week and at least feel fresh,” he said. “Hopefully that works in my favor…What I had planned in preparation was to kind of peak at the Masters and Houston’s a big part of that. It’s even more important since I tested positive and had to kind of not play in Zozo and not really get practice in and make sure I got healthy again. So, this is an important week for me. There’s a lot to take out of it.”
Scott, 40, won on the PGA Tour in February at the Genesis Invitational, his 14th PGA Tour title. Since the start of the new season in September, three fellow pros of the 40-and-older cohort have tasted victory: Stewart Cink won the Safeway Open in September; Sergio Garcia won the Sanderson Farms Championship in October; and Brian Gay won the Bermuda Championship in November.
“It just becomes harder for guys getting well into their 40s to be consistently competitive. It just takes a bit more. They’ve got to find their right weeks and take advantage of that,” Scott said. “Hopefully there’s room for a couple of older folk to hang in there like me for those next five or 10 years.”
Scott, who won the Masters in 2013, said he has added a new Titleist driver and golf ball that he plans to use there next week. Self-isolating due to COVID-19 also forced him to cancel plans to take an advance trip to Augusta National and prep for it under fall conditions.
“I’m in for a surprise next week when I get there,” he said.
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