Open Golf: Scott focusing squarely on the Majors

The preparations

I got up here last Tuesday evening, and I spent the week playing out here, which was really enjoyable, obviously we had weather like this every day. And I just watched the course firm up throughout the week, and tried to get my game to adjust to these conditions. 

So I had a really relaxed and enjoyable week learning Muirfield last week. I played Renaissance just to get away for a day. It’s busy out there and I’ve seen the course a lot. That was enjoyable playing, I played with my dad out there.

Rose’s US Open win

I couldn’t be happier for him. I really did believe — “I feel like it’s our time,” I think is what I wrote to him. And that’s because — sitting on the outside of his world a little bit and look in and can see how hard he’s working, how good he is, how much time and effort he puts into it. 

And a couple of times when we have spent time together away from a tournament, just playing socially or something, you can just see in a guy when he’s ready and that he wants it, too. And I saw that in Justin. The good thing about me winning the Masters for him was that it fired him up probably even more. And sometimes that’s all you need. 

I played a practice round with Tom Watson at the Australian Open last year and he waited seven holes to bring up what happened at the Open
Focusing on the Majors

What I have been doing for the first 10 years of my career didn’t work, and it took me that long to figure it out. I needed to do something different. And I just put everything else aside and said I’m just going to focus on big events, and do what I need to do to hopefully play the best I can at every one, especially for the Open Championship. 

Coming early for me and playing a lot on the course that we’re going to play and learning it has been important for me. I want to feel comfortable when I’m on every tee throughout the week in any condition. And the more I play the course, I think, the more I’ll feel that way. And the other part of that is, yeah, I’m enjoying practising more because I believe also for me that for my swing and my short game and my putting to hold up to four days of Major pressure, I need to put in more time practicing than playing tournaments.

Advice from Tom Watson
I played a practice round with Tom Watson at the Australian Open last year and he waited seven holes to bring up what happened at the Open. He asked me, and I told him what I thought. And he said that he let one slip early in his career, and he said he would never let that happen again. He would just be tough and want it so badly. And sometimes maybe that has to happen for you to realize that. Obviously words coming from him I took to heart. 

It was a completely different situation at Augusta. But I felt like I played tough, especially in the playoff, because no one’s going to give you a Major.