‘The best shot of my life’: The inside story of how Adam Scott won The Masters

As the rain tumbled down onto his lily-white polo, still seemingly without a crease at the end of the most stressful day of his career, Adam Scott leant over to his caddie Steve Williams and told him the line would be on the right edge of the cup.

Williams, Tiger Woods’ old bagman, said he’d seen this putt with Greg Norman before and he needed to allow for double the break, with an expletive thrown in for emphasis.

“Aim another cup further right of the hole,” Williams said.

And with darkness descending, Scott took his advice. The putt trickled across the green and rolled in on the second play-off hole, ending Australia’s agonising wait to win The Masters and the famous green jacket.

From Jim Ferrier in 1950 to Jack Newton in 1980 to Greg Norman three times, Australians had long known what it was like to finish second at Augusta National. It had happened in seven previous tournaments.

And then on one miserable Sunday afternoon, Scott gave Australian golf its America’s Cup moment.

Ten years later, this is the story of the final round in the 2013 Masters when Scott, Marc Leishman and Jason Day all tangled with Argentina’s Angel Cabrera for golf’s most cherished apparel – with Scott winning in an extraordinary play-off which finished in fading light.

Scott, Williams, Scott’s playing partner Leishman, Cameron Smith, commentator Ian Baker-Finch and Cabrera’s coach Charlie Epps talk with fresh perspective about the crazy back nine which started with Scott leaving his golf shoes at his rented house before the final round, and included a memorable photo of Leishman celebrating a Scott putt and a finish with roars of “c’mon Aussie” heard across the golfing world.

Lucky 13: the ball that hung on the edge

After coming perilously close to finding the water with his second shot, Scott makes birdie on the par-five 13th hole to draw level with Cabrera and Day at -7, with Leishman a shot further back.

Scott: “I had to wear a brand new pair of shoes in the final round because I left my normal ones at home in the morning. They were a bit tight on the front nine. I hit a good shot into 13 and I thought it was no problem. When I saw it land I was just reaching for the putter and thought, ‘Let’s get on with business’. When I got close to the green I realised it’s off the green and hanging on the hill. I’m not saying I wasn’t lucky because you need a bit of luck to win, and that might have been my luck right there.”

Leishman (Scott’s playing partner): “I remember that pretty distinctly. The ball was rolling backwards. It wasn’t like it landed there and stayed there. It looked like it was going to be wet for sure. That’s what you need to win a major, or any tournament actually. You need a bit of luck along with a lot of really good play – and he had both.”

The 17th hole and relieving the tension

Cabrera’s birdie putt on the penultimate hole misses by the barest margin, leaving him tied with Scott at -8 as they prepare to play the last.

Leishman: “We were talking about something completely unrelated to golf, and I made a point of doing that with Scotty. We had our umbrellas up walking down the fairway and I remember we looked over to the rope line on the right and there was a bloke just taking a leak. That lightened the mood a little bit. I guess he didn’t want to line up to take a slash. We had a laugh at that.”

Scott: “It is true. There was a guy having a leak on the rope line into the fairway. No-one really noticed, but it did happen. There was also another guy yelling ‘Queenslander’ on the same hole and I reckon he’s there every year, that bloke. Someone has been yelling ‘Queenslander’ ever since I’ve been going to Augusta. It’s hard to all of a sudden forget the situation of the tournament, but what was great was Leish and I were talking and not thinking about, ‘this is a shot that could win The Masters’.”

Epps (Cabrera’s coach): “On the back nine, Angel had five or six opportunities that went awry. On 17, he thought he’d won it. That ball just hung on the lip.”

‘C’mon Aussie’ … and the roar Scott didn’t want to hear

Scott (-9) makes birdie and celebrates like he has won The Masters, having taken a one-shot lead on the final hole, but moments later Cabrera lands his approach shot to three feet to set up his own birdie and force a play-off. Day (-7) rues bogeys on 16 and 17 to finish in third, while Leishman (-5) was tied-fourth with Tiger Woods.

Scott: “I thought it was the putt to win The Masters. It’s the one I’ve dropped on every putting green at home when I was practising a putt to win The Masters. It’s the [Mark] O’Meara putt [that the American golfer made when he won the tournament in 1998]. I had a similar putt in 2011 and I missed it low that time. I just read it and thought, ‘I’ll give it a bit more than you read because it was low last time’. It just caught the left edge. It felt like I had won at that moment.”

Leishman: “Up until when I sauced it [hit into the water] on 15, I was a chance to win. Once that didn’t happen I wanted one of the other boys to win. I was really good mates with Scotty and Jase [Day]. When Adam hit that shot into 18, I thought, ‘If he makes this putt it’s probably game over’. Then he made it, and I was probably like everyone else in Australia. If I was on the couch I probably would have jumped off and given it the fist-pump. I just happened to be on the green and I pumped my fist like every other Australian. And I’ve signed a lot of those photos over the years.

“I couldn’t hear anything after his putt. It was so loud. He came over to me and yelled ‘c’mon Aussie’. I remember how much adrenalin we both had, especially him. It was a very hard high five. I remember standing over my four-footer knowing it was worth a few hundred thousand bucks, potentially more because of all the majors, and not being able to feel my right hand on the club. I was lucky it was a pretty straight putt and I made it. We were all that pumped.”

Epps: “I was up towards the green and Angel likes that shot. It’s a three-quarter shot and he’s not afraid of the ball going left. I said, ‘This is a little seven iron for him’. He nipped it right off the ground and it was perfect, he hit it to about three feet. He was a magnificent iron player and that’s why he’d won The Masters before [2009]. I still don’t think it’s the best of his career, though.”

Leishman: “We went to sign our cards and then we heard this roar. We knew then it was a pretty good shot. I remember saying to Scotty, ‘You just have to go and win the bloody play-off now’.”

Scott: “We celebrated the good finish and then Steve said, ‘Listen, it’s not over yet’. That was really good of him. It was a bit of a buzzkill, but that was the reality of it. While I was signing my card, I saw the shot on tele go to a couple of feet. I knew right away we were going back out there.”

Almost Larry Mize all over again

After Scott and Cabrera’s tee shots finish nearly side by side on the first play-off hole, so do their approaches as they funnel back off the green. Cabrera almost sinks his uphill pitch – reminiscent of when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman in 1987 – but both men make par on the 18th and head to the 10th for the second hole in the play-off.

Scott: “Angel chipped first and my heart just stopped as that ball got near the hole. I was side on, it was a good speed and you could tell it was a pretty good line and it looked like it just rolled right over the edge of the hole. My heart skipped a beat for sure. That would have been a rough way to go.”

‘It breaks more than you think’

After both players set up birdie attempts, Cabrera’s uphill try shaves the hole, and Scott steps up to sink a right-to-left curler to win Australia’s first green jacket.

Baker-Finch (CBS commentator and former The Open champion): “In those days I was in the television tower behind the 12 tee and 11 green. I was shivering my arse off in the rain. It was cold, dark and miserable. There was not a person there at all. Even the guards had gone. When play goes through the hole on Sunday, they start coming through to clean up. Amen Corner was silent, spotless and dark. It’s surreal in a way. I loved the sportsmanship with Angel’s thumbs up to Adam, ‘great shot’, after he hit it really close with his approach on the second play-off hole.”

Scott: “I think that shot in the play-off is probably the best shot I’ve ever hit given the circumstance, given the slope of the fairway there and it was just hanging a little bit. To hit a six iron and control it all and not let it turn over or let it go too long. It was a ballsy shot, but it was the shot I had to hit to win. You’ve got to man up and hit a couple of great shots and knock a putt in. It was maybe the sweetest shot I’ve ever hit.”

Epps: “Angel had so much respect for Adam. They played in the Presidents Cup together and Angel was really playing well. He had his son on the bag and everything was magnificent. They were neck and neck and it was a matter of who had the last putt.”

Scott: “There was a huge respect between us. When I turned pro I was playing the European Tour, Angel was playing the European Tour, we’d played Presidents Cup teams, been playing partners on those teams. He knew I was really struggling in 2009 and his English is limited. He could see I was really struggling and he was really supportive of me on that team. He kept telling me, ‘Adam, you’re a great player, you’re a great player’. He just wanted me to believe in myself. It was only four years later we were in the play-off together at The Masters.”

Williams (Scott’s caddie): “As you walk up from the second shot, that is a moment that instils confidence not only right then, but for the rest of your life. In my mind, that was the most important golf shot Adam Scott has had to hit in his life – and it was a beautiful shot. As we were walking up to the green, I let Adam go ahead just so he could collect his emotions and what was about to occur. Something told me he’s never had that putt before. I had experience with Greg Norman before, and I distinctly remember it broke more than it looked. That’s all I was thinking. Adam read the putt and said it’s a cup out. I said, ‘it’s not even f—ing close’.” (courtesy of Chasing Majors podcast)

Scott: “He said, ‘it breaks two cups’. That’s a big call at that moment, to be fair. That’s double my read and 100 per cent more than I was thinking. I said, ‘have you ever seen this putt before? Are you sure about this?’ He said, ‘Adam, it breaks two cups’. Right. I had a good look at it. That’s the beauty of Steve. Even with the six iron at the pine tree, he delivers his message with confidence and clarity. I put out there what, I thought, was two cups. That was to win The Masters. That goes in and you win. At that point, I just draw on the experience I’ve had with winning putts. You will it into the hole. Even with a wonky stroke, you get it in there somehow. That’s what it was. I willed it in, it caught the left side and went down.”

Smith (world No.5 and reigning The Open champion): “I was doing a gym session at the Queensland Academy of Sport with a bunch of other lads at the time. We put the weights down and ended up watching him win. I think his putt on 18 really sticks with me and there was that great photo with Scotty and Leish.”

Harrison Crowe (Australian amateur making his Masters debut this year): “It’s my first memory of watching The Masters. It was such a big moment. I remember my dad Tony crying in an era where so many Aussies went close with Norman at the top of that list. He lived it all to see how close we got. I remember him going nuts down in the man cave.”

Baker-Finch: “I was only watching it on a computer screen basically, it’s not even a large monitor. It was so dark they couldn’t have played another hole. I was teary eyed and choked up for him. I’ve known him and his family since he was a kid. Jim [Nantz] threw it to me. All I could get out was, ‘It’s unbelievable Jim, from Down Under to on top of the world’. It was pure impulse. I didn’t think I’d have the call. But this was just emotion, I couldn’t think of anything else.”

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