Scott keen to end season on a high with PGA Championship win
Winning the last major of the year would add symmetry to a successful campaign
Adam Scott heads into this week's PGA Championship with bitter-sweet memories of his British Open finish last month and a clear-cut aim to "bookend" what has already been a golden season for him in the majors.
The Australian made a long-awaited breakthrough in golf's elite championships with a playoff win at the Masters in April, and was in good position to clinch the British Open at Muirfield before letting slip a one-shot lead with seven holes to play.
I'd really love to get myself in there with a chance to kind of bookend the Masters with a PGA Championship for this year
Scott's bid for the coveted Claret Jug unravelled as he recorded four consecutive bogeys from the 13th, a collapse he said was even harder to swallow than his late meltdown in the 2012 British Open at Royal Lytham.
"I was probably more disappointed at the Open this year than last," the world number five said at Oak Hill Country Club yesterday while preparing for tomorrow's opening round at the season's final major.
Scott squandered a four-shot lead with four holes to play in last year's British Open at Lytham, handing the title to South African veteran Ernie Els.
The Australian ended in a tie for third in this year's championship at Muirfield, four strokes behind winner Phil Mickelson, but overall Scott concedes he has performed well at the majors this season.
"It's been a good year," he smiled. "It was really pleasing to play well again at the [British] Open ... so I feel like I'm in some kind of form coming into the PGA this week.
"I'd really love to get myself in there with a chance to kind of bookend the Masters with a PGA Championship for this year."
Scott was especially pleased he was able to contend at the British Open after expectations had soared in his homeland following his play-off victory over Argentina's Angel Cabrera at the Masters. "I thought I was playing good before I won the Masters and really over the last couple of years I built a mind-set that I was good enough to be a major champion and it didn't really matter that I wasn't," he said.
"Winning [the Masters] obviously was extremely satisfying and confirmed that I can do it. And I've backed it up with some decent play and a good performance in the Open.
"You've got to keep pushing and I've been really conscious to do that this year so I can get myself here this week feeling like I have as good a chance to win as anyone and can keep the momentum that I've built the last couple of years going."
