Adam Scott rallies after 'silly' penalty, eyes 100th straight major start

Adam Scott will rue a ‘silly thing’ he did on Thursday – playing the wrong ball – but he rallied with an impressive performance on the weekend, including a final-round 8-under 64 on Sunday at the Cadillac Championship, and all but assured he will make his 100th straight start at a major later this year.

Scott, 45, won at Trump National Doral in 2016, the last time a PGA Tour event was played at the course, but opened with 4-over 76 on Thursday. That included a two-stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball on the eighth hole, a violation of Rule 6.3 (c).

“It's such a silly thing to do. I think it's the first time I've ever done it in my career. That's probably one of those things everyone ends up doing once,” Scott said on Saturday. “An odd set of circumstances leading up to me not checking it, which I think I've done thousands of times. To take two lumps there was, is tough, especially as you sit here now in the weekend and thinking if you're two better you would be doing so well in the tournament. But golf can be cruel at times.”

He bounced back with a 71 on Friday but struggled with his putting. Past Masters champ and current CBS lead analyst Trevor Immelman serves as a second set of eyes to Scott and suggested a small tweak.

“I was so disheartened after Friday's round, my putting was just so bad,” Scott said. “He noticed a little something with my left elbow I think for quite awhile that we just haven't really focused on it. It gave me something to focus on and probably improved my path and face and all the things that you need to do without really having to stress too much about it. So a few more went in, thank you, Trev.”

Indeed, they did. Scott played a bogey-free weekend for the first time since 2017, posting rounds of 66 and 64 to finish at 11-under 277.

Scott already is in the PGA Championship in two weeks, which would his 99thconsecutive start in a major but he still had work to do to earn a berth in the U.S. Open in June. Scott’s strong finish at Doral should lock up a spot at Shinnecock Hills next month. Scott entered the week at No. 54 in the Official World Golf Ranking and should be assured being inside the top 60 at the cutoff to make the U.S. Open field. Scott’s streak is surpassed only by Jack Nicklaus, who reached 154 straight starts at majors, a streak spanning from the 1957 U.S. Open through the 1998 U.S. Open. Scott, who won the 2013 Masters, wasn’t sure what to make of his own streak.