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KAPALUA, Hawaii – It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how successful you are, a good life balance is critical.
That balance differs for everyone, but for Adam Scott it’s still a work in progress.
Not to overstate it, but Scott at 42 has done well for himself. With PGA Tour earnings of $59 million and 14 titles, the Australian has accomplished much in his career both in the U.S. and overseas. Today he’s somewhere between his prime and a bit past it.
Scott had to sit down and think hard on how he was going to approach 2023, as he was one of the players approached by the Tour to participate in the elevated events.
While living outside the U.S., compiling a schedule that made sense with new commitments to the elevated events was difficult, and it forced Scott to make some significant changes to support the Tour’s new program.
“This is almost impossible to realistically think I’m going to compete with guys living in Florida and the best players in the world, living overseas, so I started adjusting,” Scott said of his altered plans.
It started with looking for another caddie, one who was not a backup, but an additional looper to support an ambitious schedule.
Enter Steve Williams.
Williams is known quantity to Scott. Not only did Williams caddie for Tiger Woods for 13 of his major-championship wins, but he also worked a stint for Scott that included the Aussie’s win at the 2013 Masters. By joining Greg Hearmon, Scott’s current caddie, as the second member of a very popular job share, Scott has one part of his plan in place.
“He kind of reached out to me wanting to get back on the bag and see if there was something last year but I thought this was a perfect time to introduce it because they’re both living very far away,” Scott said of how Williams came into the mix.
Oddly, Heramon lives in Perth and Williams in New Zealand, leaving both caddies with long trips to the U.S., but that was part of why Scott wanted a duo-caddie partnership.
Scott believes with the upcoming demanding tournament schedule the two-caddie system will provide a better balance versus one caddie carrying the load.
“This is a nice balance where they can kind of share out a few trips and, and flying back and forth to Perth or Auckland, New Zealand, nine times a year, I don’t think it’s going to get the best out of their performance,” Scott said of his two bagmen. “Just like flying a lot for me wouldn’t get the best out of mine, and also gets you into that place where this becomes a grind even though it should actually be great fun.”
Once he wraps this week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Scott will not return to the U.S. until the Genesis at Riviera. He’ll then stay in the U.S. through the Travelers, scheduled after the U.S. Open in June.
Scott will not have a permanent base of operations during that February through June timeframe, staying a couple of weeks in Ponte Vedra Beach, maybe a week in Palm Beach and will likely go to the West Coast after Memorial.
Scott’s family will also be part of the new schedule, with the kids currently out of school, they are being homeschooled and will stay with Scott until the next school term starts in April.
After that, Scott will be alone for eight weeks.
“That’s just kind of what it is at the moment,” Scott said.
All of this is necessary because of the Tour trying to make its product better and Scott is committed to doing that.
“I want to play the big tournaments with the best players,” Scott said. “I think the concept of what this is starting to be is the correct way to go. Irrespective, whatever happens, I believe, they need to have aspirational-type events.”
Aspirational-type events are as close to majors as possible and since the Tour doesn’t have much to do with the four majors, the plan is to create newer and bigger events.
“I’m on board for supporting moving in this direction,” Scott said of the elevated-event experiment. And I like to be a part of it. I still think I have a few years where I can possibly do that.”
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