Eyes bulging, veins pumping, Adam Scott went berserk on Augusta National’s 18th green 10 years ago – and so did an entire nation.
You can picture it already. That iconic moment.
The Georgian rain belting down, Aussie Marc Leishman quietly fist pumping in the background, and there, in the foreground, the most suave man in Australian sport losing the plot in a moment of primal joy.
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You couldn’t hear the cry over the rapturous celebration around the 18th green, but there was no misreading Scott’s lips that belted out “c’mon Aussie”.
An important fact, that feels destined to be lost to time, is that the 20-foot putt did not win that year’s Masters Tournament, but ultimately put Scott in a playoff with Angel Cabrera.
But to truly understand the significance of the Australian winning the Masters two playoff holes later, you must start at that moment.
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Augusta National was, to that point, an emotional killing field for Australian men’s golf. Even so, Scott was carrying far more than only the weight of a nation on that soggy afternoon.
Just nine months earlier, then 33-year-old Scott was the victim of one of golf’s biggest-ever chokes at a major after he bogeyed the final four holes of the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes to lose to Ernie Els by a shot.
The scale of the heartbreak was big enough to crush most players but, instead, it proved to be the belated making of Scott.
The Adelaide-born Queenslander was destined for greatness as arguably the most technically proficient male golfer from these shores, who won the Players Championship in 2004 and the Tour Championship in 2006.
Genuine success at the majors, however, was not forthcoming.
Prior to the 2012 Open, Scott had only finished inside the top-10 of a major seven times from 39 starts, dating back to 2000.
In near darkness a decade ago, Scott was at least assured of another top-10, but the chance to finally be a major champion was again close to slipping by.
Which is why it was no surprise that when the scarred Scott snaked in a lengthy putt on the 72nd hole to at least keep his Masters alive, he exploded.
“I kind of acted like I won the Masters when that putt went in on 18,” Scott told Barstool Sports’ Fore Play podcast before this year’s event. “But it felt like it.
“It felt like that’s the putt to win the Masters. When you’re a kid, you’re throwing balls on the putting green – it was the (Mark) O’Meara putt, when he made that. So I went off.”
Speaking to Fox Sports last year about the tournament, Scott said that he was driven by not having “a Lytham happen again”.
He added: “How many chances do you get at winning a major?
“You might get a couple but I had let one slip through and it didn’t feel good, so I wanted to make the most of this chance.”
On Scott’s bag that day was legendary caddie Steve Williams, who viewed the disaster at Lytham as the “big turning point” in the Australian’s career.
“When you look back, losing the British Open gives you an enormous kick in the arse to get going – in a positive way,” Williams said in 2013.
“A lot of people have said to me, ‘that must have been hard to take’. I believe that really spurred him on … I think it said to him, ‘you know what, I can actually do this, I really can’. He’s knuckled down since then.
“He turned what could be a negative into a positive. You don’t get to where these guys are without hard work, and I think Adam’s pushed a little bit harder. The results have come.”
In a separate interview with the Chasing Majors podcast last year, Williams said he was certain Scott would win the next time he contended after the 2012 Open.
“There was no question in my mind,” Williams told the podcast. “I would be pretty willing to say if he had won the Open Championship at Lytham in 2012, he probably wouldn’t have won Augusta.”
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THE WOODS CONNECTION
Like all good caddies, Williams downplayed his own role in Scott finally ticking the majors box for himself, and the Masters box for Australia.
His impact, however, cannot be understated.
The legendary looper was Tiger Woods’ caddy from 1999 to 2011 – a partnership which delivered the greatest player of all time 13 majors.
After the pair eventually split, Williams partnered up with Scott, passing on every piece of wisdom earnt from his successful career with Woods to his new partner.
His presence was invaluable with Scott walking taller with Williams in his corner, culminating in him becoming world No.1 in May 2014.
Fittingly, he succeeded Woods after the 683rd, and final, week the American spent as the world’s best male golfer.
“He played a really big piece of the puzzle in my career at that time,” Scott said of Williams. “He added to that self-belief that I could do it.
“He had been on Tiger’s bag and they had an incredible 15 years or so and he had seen it all. Whether he was blowing smoke up me or not, he was telling me ‘you’re good enough to do this, this is what Tiger did, you’re doing that stuff, keep doing it’.”
Williams’ own assertiveness played a bigger role in getting Scott across the line than many realise.
On Sunday at Augusta in 2013, it played out through Williams’ clear, concise communication and confident calls which Scott happily obliged.
“It really helped. It fit in at the right time and down the stretch (in ‘13) our communication was really good,” Scott said. “We were really working well together, and his messages were always really positive and reassuring. And that’s what you need down the stretch.”
No communication the pair had, however, would be more important than a discussion 40 minutes after Scott bellowed “c’mon Aussie” on 18.
‘NOT EVEN ‘F**KING CLOSE’
Moments before the putt at the second playoff hole, Scott hit the shot of his life into the 10th green.
Off a sloped lie from 180 metres, and in the rain, Scott drew a pure six-iron to land his ball inside Cabrera’s at about 15-feet.
Those 15 feet would decide whether the defining moment of Scott’s career would be agony at Lytham, or immortality at Augusta.
If Williams was not there, it easily could’ve been the former.
“I knew that he would never have had that putt before. Just something told me he has never had that putt before,” Williams told Chasing Majors.
“I have had the experience there with Greg Norman, who had that putt, and I just distinctly remember it broke more than it looked and that’s all I was thinking.”
The pair had an agreed routine in which Scott would read the putt and tell Williams what he was thinking before committing to the stroke.
The entire tournament, and Scott’s subsequent legacy, hinged on the brief dialogue that would follow.
“He said, “oh Steve, it’s dark. Have a look,” plus this, that and the other. I was so pleased, but if he didn’t ask me, I was going to have a look anyway, because I knew that he wouldn’t know how much that putt broke,” Williams said. “And Adam read the putt, and he said, “it’s a cup out.
“I said, “that’s not even f**king close. It’s two-and-a-half cups with a bit of speed.”
“I think I said something like ‘are you absolutely sure?” Scott remembered on the Fore Play podcast. “‘Have you ever seen this putt before?’ He’s like, ‘Adam, it is absolutely two cups’.
“That’s why he’s had a lot of success because he’d put it all on the line. He wasn’t going to split it with me, he was like ‘it’s two’.
“So I played it two and it went in on the left side, but it went in.”
‘I COULDN’T FEEL MY HAND’
After hitting the putt that actually won the Masters, Scott’s celebration was somewhat more restrained having gone wild 40 minutes earlier.
Playing with Scott in the final round was compatriot Leishman, who was also in contention until he rinsed a ball in the water on No.15.
When his own chances of winning were dashed, like any good Aussie, he started pulling for his mate.
“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,” Leishman told the Sydney Morning Herald last week. “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.”
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Among Scott’s wild celebrations included one of the all-time, powerful high-fives with Leishman, whose own round wasn’t over yet.
Leishman had a putt that would ultimately decide whether he finished in a tie for fourth, or solo fifth – a seemingly inconsequential difference, if not for the massive gap in prize money.
“I couldn’t hear anything after his putt. It was so loud,” Leishman said. “I remember how much adrenaline 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.”
Luckily for Leishman, he drained the straight putt before the stage cleared for Cabrera, who stuck his approach on 18 to kick-in distance to force the playoff with Scott.
Cabrera then almost won the green jacket at the first playoff hole with his chip skimming the cup, invoking memories of Larry Mize’s freak chip-in in 1987 to beat Greg Norman.
The pair went to a second playoff hole where fading light became Scott’s enemy, too, with play sure to be suspended if a third hole was required.
Whether it went in or not, Scott’s putt on No.10 was going to be the last shot of the day.
Not only did the putt cap off a remarkable tournament, but it provided Scott, and all of Australia, a piece of sporting history that will truly live through the ages.
