World No. 1 Adam Scott will be making a first this week when he tees-up in the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
It will be the first occasion the Australian has ever competed on the Jack Nicklaus designed Valhalla course given Scott made his PGA Championship debut in 2001 and a year after the traditional season-ending Major was last staged on the course.
Scott has contested all PGA Championships since 2001 with a best finish being T3rd in 2006 at Medinah while he was T5th a year ago at Oak Hill and in the same year he became the first Australian to win the Masters.
“I was competing on the European Tour as a new pro for a few months in 2000 when the PGA Championship was played at Valhalla,” said Scott.
Adam Scott – a photograph taken in 2001 at the Volvo PGA at Wentworth and just months before his PGA Championship debut. (Photo – European Tour)
“And while I watched TV coverage of the 2008 Ryder Cup, I can’t remember much though I can remember Tiger and Bob May going head-to-head in the play-off in 2000,” he said.
“I don’t know if it will be the same set-up back then but I guess not.”
Of course, Scott’s career is already defined by his 2013 Masters triumph while he went close to Open Championship success in 2012 and while he’s had four top-10s in the PGA Championship, he said the PGA of America set up their host courses very different from the three other Majors.
“The PGA have gone to very different venues recently with Kiawah Island being very unique and then we went to Oak Hill last year which is a typical old style north-east American course and now we are going to what I’ve heard is more like a resort-style golf course,” he said.
“It’s very hard to say but I’ve got a feeling Valhalla is fairly generous off the tee but the rough is very long.
“But then the way I have been playing I can adapt to any golf course and I don’t think Valhalla will be too different and much like the courses we play on here on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour.
“It’s not like going to The Open where you face a completely different challenge.”
And Scott will head south to the Blue Grass State of Kentucky not just looking to make up the numbers but disappointed if he does not become the first Australian since Steve Elkington in 1995 to capture the PGA Championship.
“I haven’t played my best this week, so I am not frustrated yet but if it’s the case next week when I am playing well and I find myself six or seven shots behind I will be very frustrated,” he said.
“I just go out and expect to play very, very well next week and but a win next week will be a disappointment for me.”
