GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA | It was a few minutes before 9 a.m. Wednesday and Adam Scott was AimPointing a downhill putt for one of his pro-am partners on the final hole of his nine-hole round at the Wyndham Championship, the day’s heat already building.
Had Scott’s season gone a little better, the 45-year-old would probably be somewhere else, waiting for the FedEx Cup playoffs to begin next week. But at 85th on the FedEx Cup points list, and with this week at Sedgefield Country Club being the final chance to crack the top 70 to advance, Scott is chasing the big week he hasn’t yet had this year.
Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, two others in the same golf celebrity orbit, are also playing the Wyndham Championship, which has cultivated its last-chance-to-make-the-playoffs spot on the schedule into a week with multiple storylines.
The three of them – Scott, Spieth and Fowler – remain magnetic figures but as they have slipped into middle age in professional golf terms, what once seemed to come easily is harder to corral now.
While Spieth and Fowler are booked for at least the first playoff event next week in Memphis, Scott needs a week like he had here in 2021, when he lost in a playoff.
“I actually think sometimes when it’s like a last-chance thing, this will be my last chance to play on the PGA Tour potentially for some weeks, it’s do or die. That’s a fun way to play,” said Scott, who does not have a top-10 finish this year despite having had a share of the U.S. Open lead with 13 holes remaining in June.
“Sometimes we or I have [fallen] in the trap of like there’s always next week if it doesn’t work out and that’s not the case here, so I think that’s not a pressure but more motivation.”
The game keeps moving. A decade ago, Spieth was the major championship-collecting star that Scottie Scheffler is today. Fowler won the Players Championship. Scott was still basking in the glow of his 2013 Masters victory.
Now, Chris Gotterup is the flavor of the month, Ben Griffin is trying to lock down a Ryder Cup spot and 39-year-old Keegan Bradley is sitting on a decision has that the golf world guessing.
For Spieth, who sits at 50th in the points race and needs to stay there or improve over the next two weeks to assure his spot in the tour’s signature events next year, this has been a different kind of year.
He missed the first month of the season recovering from wrist surgery, was on a good roll when a neck/upper back issue prompted him to withdraw from the Travelers Championship, and recently he and his wife, Annie, welcomed their third child, leaving him with just one start since the U.S. Open entering the Wyndham.
Standing outside Wednesday as the heat index hovered near 100, Spieth talked about how strange it felt to be on the road without his family this week. He has settled into a routine in Dallas, getting his work done early so he can be in the pool with his kids in the afternoon.
He is excited to play the next two weeks, both because of what’s at stake – Spieth remains in the Ryder Cup discussion – and because he feels he is on the edge of a breakthrough week. A good week here or in Memphis will lock him into the biggest events next year.
“I didn’t like asking for exemptions this year at all. I was fortunate to receive a lot of them, but you just never know. And when you miss out on elevated events, the way it’s structured, they’ve got the best players in the world at all of them and you don’t want to miss any of them. It’s a big reason why I’m here,” said Spieth, who fell from 38th to 48th during his recent down time before slipping two more spots.
Both Scott and Spieth sound convinced their games are good enough to win but sewing the various pieces together at the same time has been elusive.
“It would be nice to have a huge boost this week and not have to worry about it next week, but I’m fully prepared to have some stress next week on that 50 number, and ideally a good start this week or next week really takes a lot of that off. So the way to have a good start is to not think about it and just play the way I’ve been playing.”
There is a difference in chasing form and chasing results. Both Scott and Spieth sound convinced their games are good enough to win but sewing the various pieces together at the same time has been elusive.
“There’s nothing technical that I’m really doing other than I’m going to have to just start willing the ball in the hole on the greens. I think I’ve got to stay calm and take my time and putt each one like it’s the putt to win and hopefully make it,” Scott said.
Spieth put it this way:
“It’s like I’ve had nine holes here where I didn’t make anything, it could have been 4-under on nine holes to spark a round, or I had nine holes of kind of some poor iron shots where you kind of throw yourself out of it so I end up finishing somewhere seventh to 13th instead of having a chance to compete.”
“This year wasn’t necessarily terrible. [I] feel like I just didn’t take very many chances where I put myself in a position where I could maybe have a decent weekend and have a solid finish.” – Rickie Fowler
As for Fowler, who sits 61st in the points race, there is a similar refrain. He has only missed two cuts in 18 starts (plus one withdrawal) but has just one top-10 finish to show for it. Iron play and putting have been the chief culprits.
“This year wasn’t necessarily terrible. [I] feel like I just didn’t take very many chances where I put myself in a position where I could maybe have a decent weekend and have a solid finish,” Fowler said.
Fowler is a 36-year-old father these days but his popularity, particularly among youngsters, endures. He has two young daughters of his own who keep him busy enough, he said, that he hasn’t had a chance to watch his cameo in the recently released “Happy Gilmore 2.”
With an ice-stuffed towel around his neck as he finished his pro-am round Wednesday, Fowler patiently posed for photographs, signed some autographs and made being accessible look easy.
It has been more than five years since Scott’s last victory, more than three years since Spieth won at Hilton Head and two-plus years since Fowler won.
Just two weeks ago, Scheffler was talking about how quickly the thrill of victory can subside, prompting Fowler to say, “It’s pretty brief and quick. It’s like life doesn’t stop, it keeps going.”
This week is one more reminder.
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