Armed with an aggressive new Sunday mindset and inspired by his idol Greg Norman, Adam Scott has vowed to finish the job and win the British Open.
Scott’s sublime course record-equalling six-under-par 64 at Royal Lytham and St Annes thrust the 32-year-old into the outright lead for the first time in 46 career majors.
Heading into the second round on Friday (10.43pm AEST), the world No.13 knew he’d encounter ups and downs on the testing links course, especially if the wind that was non-existent on Thursday arrived.
But enjoying the finest form of his life, sweet-swinging Scott believed he was equipped better than ever before to cope with the conditions and the inevitable challenges of some of the game’s greatest players.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some weather elements thrown at us the next three days, so I’m just going to have to knuckle down to handle that,” he said after racking up eight birdies in a brilliant 13-hole stretch on day one.
“But I’m confident. My ball-striking is good. I think I can get it around no matter what the conditions are.”
The 2011 Masters runner-up was also drawing confidence from his wire-to-wire victory at the prestigious WGC Bridgestone International last year.
Scott had rued slow starts at this year’s Masters and US Open, where he recovered after a combined 11-over-par opening rounds to finish tied eighth and equal 15th, and resolved not to make the same fatal mistake at Lytham.
A pre-round pep talk from caddie Steve Williams, who carried Tiger Woods’ bag for 13 of the American superstar’s 14 majors before linking with Scott last year, hammered home the point.
“We talked about that mindset because I was playing well at all the majors this year, but the first round I’m shooting myself in the foot a little bit and making it too much work to get back in it,” Scott said.
“He wanted me to go to that first tee today like it was the 72nd hole and ‘you have three to win and really switch yourself on from the first hole’.
“That was a good little trigger he kind of helped out with.
“I was playing so well going into the US Open, I felt, and all of a sudden I was seven over through 15 holes of the tournament and you can’t pick up that many shots in a major.”
After reeling off birdies on the fourth, sixth, seventh, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes, Scott needed to birdie the last hole to become the first player ever to shoot 62 in the opening round of a major.
But a bogey on 18, after pulling his two iron off the tee into the deep rough, left Scott content with matching the course record that American Tom Lehman set in the winning the Open in 1996.
Fellow Queenslander Norman was the last Australian to kiss the Claret Jug in 1993 and Scott admitted the Shark’s triumph inspired him to pursue a professional career in golf.
“When he won at St. George’s in ’93, I watched every bit of it,” he said.
“And that was huge for me because it was about that time I was stopping playing other sports and really wanting to be a golfer, and he was my idol.