Why haven’t the internationals won more? Adam Scott blames himself

It’s January 15 and Adam Scott and I are at the back of the fairway at Emirates Golf Club, in Dubai. It’s the Monday of the Dubai Desert Classic, which is Scott’s season opener. He has just posed for a series of photos for March issue of GOLF magazine and it has been delightful going from one topic to another.

LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann drops by our seats to say hello and playfully ask Adam why he is STILL speaking to this reporter. Joaco is not necessarily wrong. Scott and I have been crying for 45 minutes now, and it’s almost lunch time. Only we have a more pressing topic to discuss: the upcoming Presidents Cup.

It may have been eight months away at the time, but the subject of major team golf competitions is ripe for speculation at any time of the year. Partly because it has been more than two decades since the Internationals won this team competition against the United States, but also because Scott witnessed Ryder Cup in Rome. It was only three months old at the time, and because of the result – a dominant win by Team Europe – it was still being discussed in headlines, press conferences, even the Full Swing documentary. At the driving range in Dubai, where the only American Ryder Cupper in the field was Brian Harman, the referendum on Team USA was still alive.

“One of these years,” I told Scott, then a 10-time international team member, “you guys are going to knock off that American team and it’s going to scare people.”

He agreed. Whether it was the notion of an imminent international victory or one that would send shockwaves through their opponents, Scott had thought very clearly. And his gut instinct was to blame himself.

“Look, I think I have to be pretty critical of myself,” Scott said that day. “I think it’s coming. I think the team has gone in a fantastic direction in the last two Cups. I should be leading by winning four and a half points. No (going) 2-2. That doesn’t do it.”

Unfortunately for him, he’s right. Scott will do so this week in his 11th (consecutive!) President’s Cup, making him the most experienced pro in the field. Now 44, the last time the Internationals had anything other than a loss at the event, he was a 23-year-old rookie playing alongside his powerhouse Ernie Els.

Scott went 3-2 that week, in a team tie. Two years later he played again, going 3-1-1, undefeated until a singles match against Jim Furyk. But since then, he has failed to win more games than he has lost, playing in 49 of his 50 career starts. There’s no golfer on the planet who has played (and continues to play) more for his team than Scott has for the Internationals, but we’re still on the back end of that driving range in addressing one of the ultimate truisms of team sports: you don’t it matters how well you play as an individual if the team doesn’t win. So Scott keeps looking in the mirror.

“I think we have a great chance,” Scott continued. “I know we’re not as — maybe enough — united as the European team, but the American team did some licks there in Rome. It will be interesting to see their dynamic. They generally come into Presidents Cups very, very confident because they win them all. But we have a chance if we can put it together. For me, I just need to win. I need a Presidents Cup where I win every game.”

By that he means playing like Jon Rahm or Rory McIlroy have played in recent Ryder Cups, a sight he got up close in 2023 when he attended the event for the first time in Rome. Lead in experience, lead by example and lead by winning matches. That’s a lot to ask of a golfer in his 25th year as a professional. But it is he who seeks.

What’s most interesting about those statements from eight months ago is that Scott was surprisingly confident. He was 43 years old and felt fresh. Not in the typical way every professional golfer is when the calendars turn to January. But in one I still have many first days of school left a kind of way. He had just enjoyed a nice holiday break and was renewed for 2024. He was 37th in the world and according to DataGolf he was 47th. Covid had taken a bigger hit to his game – he won one of the last tour events before the pandemic closed – than most. But something clicked with his gear and speed pursuits in 2023 and surely, 2024 would yield something fruitful. I asked him, if 2024 is finally considered successful in Adam Scott’s golf career, what does it look like?

“I’d really like to win some tournaments,” he said that day. For someone who hasn’t won in four years, that felt like a lot.

“It’s really the only thing I’d like to do,” he continued, admitting that it’s gotten a little annoying that his kids are now old enough to ask why dad is so nice but doesn’t bring it up. the trophy at home.

What followed that admission was about as close to fulfillment as it gets without checking those boxes. Scott was the most comfortable clubhouse leader at the Scott Open in July, only to be beaten by Bob MacIntyre’s eagle-for-birdie heroics, to the tune of a crowd singing the Scottish national anthem. A month later he tied for the lead on the back nine in the BMW Championship, only to lose by one to Keegan Bradley.

Two different flips of two different coins and Scott could have had multiple tours. Instead, he will have no choice but to try and make some Presidents’ Cup matches. Maybe every game. It doesn’t matter if we follow or not. We know he will keep his tracks because 2-2 is not working out.