Former world number one Adam Scott is relishing the chance to experience a career first in this week’s ISPS Handa Australian Open.
The tournament sees men, women and golfers with disabilities competing on the same course at the same time, with Victoria Golf Club the primary venue across all four days and Kingston Heath hosting play on Thursday and Friday.
Scott was full of praise for the format in his pre-tournament press conference alongside fellow former champions Dame Laura Davies and Johan Kammerstad, who won the first Australian All Abilities event in 2018.
“It’s my first time to play in a mixed field like this,” the 2013 Masters champion said.
“I think it’s something Laura’s used to. I remember growing up watching her play a lot down here in Australia, winning events, playing with the guys and she’s championed this kind of thing for a long time.
“I hope she feels that it’s come a long way and Australia is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible this week. I hope the rest of the world pays attention.
“I’m here to embrace it and hopefully it is a win-win. So far it’s been really enjoyable. I got to play nine holes with Minjee (Lee) yesterday at Kingston Heath and Min Woo, her brother. Fun things like that aren’t normally happening.
“I think – certainly at this time in the golfing world – eyes have been opened to different formats. Hopefully we’ve all got our eyes open this week to see the best in this one.”
Open champion Cameron Smith, who played with Ireland’s Brendan Lawlor in the pre-tournament pro-am, is seeking a first Australian Open victory after winning his third Australian PGA title last week.
“It would be a really nice way to finish off a really good year,” said Smith, who also won twice on the PGA Tour – including the prestigious Players Championship – and the LIV Golf event in Chicago after joining the Saudi-funded breakaway.
“The plan was to come down here and win both of them and I ticked one box and hopefully can do one more this week.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here