The Scotty Slam is in serious jeopardy.
Adam Scott, who had blazed through his home country with back-to-back wins at the Australian PGA and Australian Masters, got off to a sluggish start Thursday at the World Cup of Golf.
Playing on a course on which he won just four days earlier, Scott shot a 4-over 75 to sit nine shots off the lead at Royal Melbourne. It was one shot off his worst score of the year.
Scott came undone on the par-4 12th hole. He launched his tee shot way right, was forced to take an unplayable with his provisional, and walked off the green with a quintuple-bogey 9, dropping him to 4 over.
“It was a couple of lazy swings and I paid the price,” he told reporters afterward. “(I was) just away with the fairies on that hole. It’s a little disappointing to do that, but stuff can happen. That’s why when you play good tracks like this, you need to be switched on all day. I paid the price today.”
Still, he will have three days to chase down the leaders and keep alive what the local papers are calling the “Scotty Slam” – winning all three Australian majors and the World Cup heading into next week’s Australian Open in Sydney.
Robert Allenby (2005) was the last player to sweep all three Australian events in the same season.
Scott’s partner, Jason Day, carded a 68 on Day 1 to keep Australia in the team race. The Aussies are tied for eighth at 1 over, six shots behind co-leaders United States and Denmark.