Masters reflections: Adam Scott’s winning putt

Adam Scott reflects on holing the winning putt in a play-off against Angel Cabrera in the 2013 Masters at Augusta National

Words: Robin Barwick

Since the 2013 Masters, it has been reported far and wide how champion Adam Scott asked his caddie Steve Williams to read the winning putt for him, but the full story on the conversation between Scott and Williams on the 10^th green was only revealed last night, as Scott spoke to guests of Mercedes-Benz at a dinner in Augusta.

Scott was faced with a 12-foot birdie putt with a left-to-right break on the 10^th green to win the Masters, on the second sudden-death play-off hole against Argentina’s Angel Cabrera. Both players had started the play-off with pars on 18, and Cabrera had narrowly missed his birdie attempt on the 10^th.

“I don’t ask Steve to read putts for me normally,” started Scott last night, sitting on stage with the Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte. “I only tend to ask him if the putt is quite straight, and if I can’t decide if it is just right of centre, or just left. Steve is a good green reader, but I think I am a pretty good green reader as well, and you don’t want to confuse the issue too much! Sometimes it is a case of, sit back Steve and I will play for a bit!

“On the 10^th hole it was getting dark and my eyes are not the best in that kind of light. When you have got a guy like Steve on your bag, everything he says is very positive and delivered with conviction. This was the first time I had ever had a putt to win a major, and I thought to myself that it does not get any bigger than this. Steve has been going to Augusta for 30 years, so I said to him, ‘Have you ever seen this putt?’ and he said… ‘No.’

“You get it straight from Steve, every time!”

While Scott thought the putt would break by a cup’s width, Williams thought it would break by “at least two cups”. Scott went with Williams’ read, holed the putt and became the first Australian winner of the Masters.

“I have never played in an atmosphere like that on a golf course,” added Scott, in recalling the play-off. “It was late in the day, it was getting dark, it was raining and cool, and it felt like it was just true sports fans who were left, and there were a lot of them. It was a really raw atmosphere and it was a great to play golf in it.”

Scott tees off in the first round of the 12014 Masters on Thursday at 10:41am local time, in the company of American Jason Dufner and 19-year-old Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick, the reigning US Amateur champion.

Mercedes-Benz is Global Sponsor of the 2014 Masters Tournament.