The iron man from Down Under
Adam Scott joins Jack Nicklaus in the major championship Century Club
The Daily Drive will have coverage of the U.S. Open from veteran golf insider Bob Harig all week from Shinnecock Hills.
In today’s DD …
Adam Scott reaches rare territory with his 100th consecutive major start.
Rundown of the week in golf.
Is Brooks Koepka’s Shinnecock Open defense in jeopardy?
U.S. Open’s convoluted broadcast schedule.
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Adam Scott has only 46 more majors in a row to go to catch Jack Nicklaus (Chris Condon/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
‘It’s not something you set out to do’
By Bob Harig
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Fresh off his 21st birthday, Adam Scott teed it up at the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes without any idea that he’d never miss a major championship for the next 25 years.
The Australian golfer — who already was catching glances due to a golf swing that would long be the envy of players and admirers — was playing in just his second major, having missed the cut the year prior in the Open at St Andrews.
Scott had forged some success as a young gun on the European Tour as well as on his home Australasian Tour. Now here he was at Royal Lytham in England, where David Duval won his one and only major championship (and what turned out to be the last of his 13 PGA Tour titles).
That 2001 Open was also notable for the unfortunate mistake made by Ian Woosnam, who began the day in a four-way tie for the lead only to discover a 15th club in his bag on the second tee — the first hole at Royal Lytham is a par-3 — thus leading to a two-shot penalty and a tumble down the leaderboard.
Tiger Woods tied for 25th that week in a rare poor major performance during his peak, having completed the “Tiger Slam” earlier that year at the Masters.
Scott tied for 47th.
Having turned pro a year earlier, Scott was embarking on an unforeseen journey. Only one player in the history of the game had ever competed in 100 consecutive majors, and that was Jack Nicklaus who went a hard-to-fathom 146 straight majors without missing one over a span of more than 36 years from 1962 to 1998 when a nagging hip injury prompted him to skip The Open. The math is pretty simple — it takes 25 full years to accumulate 100 consecutive majors, and odds are against anyone being both eligible and healthy for that long.
When Scott tees off on Thursday in U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club — a place he calls “probably my favorite course on the East Coast” — he will be playing in his 100th consecutive major championship.
“It’s not something you set out to do, obviously,” said Scott, who is now 45. “I take pride in my game and everything I put into it.
“I don’t know what to make of it,” he said recently when asked about the impending milestone. “I mean, part of me doesn’t want to be the guy yet who just has all these other things that aren’t based around winning events. I would rather win some stuff, and let’s celebrate winning the U.S. Open than just playing in it.
“I feel like that, but I can give myself a pat on the back for hanging in there and playing all these events. I think there’s some luck in it, but I think I’ve had generally great advice around me from a physical and training standpoint that’s kept me healthy and pretty much injury free. I don’t really have niggles and things that are concerning.”
Nicklaus, who won 18 major championships, never missed a major throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His major streak ended following the 1998 U.S. Open when he was 58 years old as he decided to have hip replacement surgery. Nicklaus tied for sixth earlier that year at the Masters. He played his last major in 2005 at The Open at St. Andrews.
The Golden Bear had the benefit of being exempt for all of the majors throughout this career and even into his 50s after winning the 1986 Masters. The USGA issued him eight special exemptions into the U.S. Open, which helped extend his streak. But he played his 100th in a row at the 1986 PGA Championship fully eligible for every one he had played having won 18 of them already.
Adam Scott has played in every major for 25 years since 2001 Open (Maddie Meyer/PGA of America via Getty Images)
Scott’s lone major championship victory came at the 2013 Masters, which makes his longevity more remarkable in that he does not have the lengthy exemptions that come with winning the other majors.
He is exempt for life at Augusta National for that Masters victory. But since his exemption for winning it expired after five years at the other majors, Scott has needed to be qualified for them — not always an easy task through various bits of poor play or health.
