OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — His hair is speckled with gray. Even if he remains a fan favorite in some circles, when picks to win the U.S. Open were being made, not many included 44-year-old Adam Scott.
Once third-round action at Oakmont wrapped up Saturday, though, the list of the top 10 names on the U.S. Open leaderboard was made up of two kinds of players: Those who had never won a major. And Scott, the 2013 Masters champion.
On a day that brought back memories of that Sunday, 12 years and two months ago at Augusta, one of Australia’s biggest sports stars matched the day’s best score with a 3-under 67. He’ll enter the final round tied for second at 3 under with J.J. Spaun, and one shot behind Sam Burns, with whom Scott will play alongside Sunday in the final pairing.
“If I were to come away with it tomorrow, it would be a hell of a round of golf and an exclamation point on my career,” Scott said.
He knows this will be a test. Everyone around him on that leaderboard is younger, and most hit the ball farther. Nobody over 40 has won a major since Phil Mickelson took the PGA at age 50 in 2021. Nobody over 40 has won a U.S. Open since Payne Stewart in 1999.
But nobody among this group of top contenders has memories of what it’s like to close on one of golf’s biggest stages. If Scott pulls it off Sunday, he’ll become the second-oldest winner of America’s national championship, behind Hale Irwin, who was 45 when he won at Medinah in 1990.
“It would be super fulfilling,” said Scott, whose last real run at a major came at the PGA in 2018. “Everyone out here has got their journey. Putting ourselves in these positions doesn’t just happen by fluke. It’s not easy to do it. I really haven’t been in this kind of position for five or six years, or feeling like I’m that player. But that’s what I’m always working towards.”
Over the final six holes in calm, damp conditions, Scott set aside the notion that the U.S. Open and Oakmont are the sort of nerve-jangling test that the 40-something set isn’t great at. He played those holes in 3 under.
The shot-making display included a tee shot to inside 5 feet for birdie on 13, an approach on 14 to a foot for birdie, a 14-footer for another birdie on No. 17 and a slick, tricky two-putt from 55 feet on the 18th hole to close with a par.
With a ball speed measured at 187 mph on the 18th tee box, and a drive that traveled 331 yards, some of this looked more like Scott in his prime — back in 2014, when, partly on the strength of that Masters victory, he passed Tiger Woods to vault to No. 1 in the world ranking.
Scott played a practice round Wednesday with friend and fellow Aussie, Marc Leishman, who came away impressed.
“He was striking the ball well,” Leishman said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all to see him up there.”
Still, who could have seen this coming?
Yes, Scott finished second two times last year, including at the BMW Championship in the playoffs. But he doesn’t have a top-10 finish this year. He’s made more headlines of late off the course — namely, for jumping into a key policymaking role with the PGA Tour, as it navigates its long-running negotiations with LIV Golf.
Meanwhile, though, things have quietly been trending in the right direction on the course of late.
“I started hitting it better off the tee in the last month, and usually over my career, I’ve seen that bleed through the rest of the game,” Scott said. “I’ve slowly done it. I’m not exactly firing on all cylinders, but it’s a nice thing having some confidence coming into tomorrow.”
If this were a game of resumes, not driving, chipping and putting, Scott would already have the trophy.
This marks the Aussie’s 96th straight major — the longest active streak and second-longest ever to Jack Nicklaus, who played in 146 straight. The other four players at even or better heading into Sunday — Burns, Spaun, Viktor Hovland and Carlos Ortiz — have combined to play 63.
“A lot can happen in 18 holes out here,” Scott said. “But I like what I’ve done so far.”
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