Trevor Immelman and Adam Scott – mature heads to assist an inexperienced but talented International team.
Adam Scott will play his 10th Presidents Cup when the event gets underway on Thursday 22nd and while he is the 5th highest world ranked player in the International team, his longevity of success and consistency at the highest level gives him the right to be the playing leader.
Scott’s reasoned and measured thoughts on the game provide a solid base on which his less experienced teammates can rely over four days at the demanding Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte.
Scott has now played on more International Presidents Cup teams than any other player and his points record is bettered only by Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.
That record might not necessarily get his team across the line, but the 42-year-old Queenslander, whose first Presidents Cup came in 2003 when the International shared the honours with the US in South Africa, will play a key role in settling the nerves of the 75 % of his team who face the cauldron of an American home game for the first time.
Speculated as a possible convert to LIV Golf earlier this year, Scott has made it clear recently that he is not about to give away twenty years of chasing majors in the hope that LIV Golf recruits will eventually be able to play majors.
Scott has only won one major title but his record at the elite level in the second half of his career has been significantly better than that of the first and it would seem based on comments at the recent BMW PGA Championship in London that he feels there is life in the old dog yet.
Earlier this week Scott was asked about the hurt of his International side losing so many actual and potential team members to LIV Golf.
“I think it does, because I think even though maybe the international team, our struggles have been fairly well-aired over the years or documented, I think everyone becomes very invested at some point in the week.
“As individual competitors, we don’t like losing. I know that’s something we do a lot anyway is playing individual tournaments. But I think it has stung a lot. It’s been frustrating a lot. The close calls really sting. The couple times we’ve really been thumped is very, very frustrating, and I think in saying all that, I’m the only one carrying any real baggage into this one.
“I think Hideki probably has felt a bit of both, as well, in fairness, but I think the beauty of this one for me is that I see a lot of guys out here for the first time, and when I made the team for the first time, it was like, you make the Presidents Cup team, you come out and win points, it’s what you’ve dreamed of, and that’s kind of how it started for me, on a pretty good note.
“That’s what I think these guys can do this week. I certainly am not dwelling on anything and to be perfectly honest, looking back at Melbourne, although that was one that stung for sure, I thought so much changed, the direction of this team changed there, and I think that’s carried over.”
Scott also sung the praises of South African Trevor Immelman, a former Masters Champion and now lead commentator for CBS, who will captain the International side. The pair became good friends during their early professional days when playing in Europe and remain close.
“Trevor has embraced that a lot (the direction created by Ernie Els in Melbourne) and done an incredible job. I think we’re going to see that continue no matter what the result. I still remain incredibly optimistic that we have a shot this week.”
I think we’ve really gotten over that, to be honest, from ’19,” added Scott referring to the come from behind Sunday win of the Americans in Melbourne.
“I think the structures that have been put in place by Ernie and the assistants there and carried over and evolved since with Trevor. I don’t feel like we have those obstacles in trying to massage pairings together and find the secret sauce anymore. I think everything that’s going on behind the scenes is making guys feel very confident to play with each other. I don’t know whether it’s — not that we’re spending more time together, but it sounds almost corny, but creating an identity for this team has given us all the same kind of language, if you want.
“I think knowing Trevor so well, he certainly showed how much work he’s put into this and how much meaning it has to him and how deep he has gone into thinking about what he can give us as an opportunity and experience this week.
“He’s gone further than anyone has gone before, and I think he’s pushed pretty hard for some help from the PGA TOUR to do that, as well, and create an opportunity and an experience for us that we’ll never forget this week, which feels very good.
“I feel very confident in everything that’s happened. From the preparation side, I come in here, all I’ve got to worry about is playing some golf, and that’s the only thing I can do anyway, so that feels like a really nice place as a player to be. I’m really not polluting anyone else’s mind with anything more than that.
“These guys are incredibly talented, and relatively unknown maybe compared to the stars of the United States, but they’ve now been given a platform to show off this week, and I hope they do.”
If the Internationals can find a way to even contend and possibly win against all odds and statistics it will be in no small way due to the efforts of Immelman and Scott whose friendship forged all those years ago is now manifested in guiding their team to a perhaps improbable but still possible win.
According to Adam Scott at least.
