Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty for Adam Scott?

At 32, Adam Scott is at the crossroads of his career.

A very good golfer, Scott has yet to cross over into the realm of great golfer and—if he seriously wants to be known as a great golfer—is starting to run out of time to really make a push to claim the number one spot on the Official World Golf Rankings list.

Therein lies the rub with Scott. He has all the talent in the world to be one of the game’s elite without the resume to show for it.

Scott plays a smooth game. He is long off the tee and is very decent reaching the green.

Scott was sixth on tour in 2012 in scoring average at 69.53, a very good number.

He, however, did not with this past year on the PGA Tour.

For all his talent, he is best known for blowing a four-shot lead on the final four holes at this year’s Open Championship and not his eight career wins.

For most golfers, that is a great career. But for Scott, it seems like a disappointment.

The one thing missing from his game is self-confidence.

When he is aware of how well he is doing, he seems to doubt his abilities and think about it too much.

It happened to him at the first round of the Open Championship this year as he came within a whisker of shooting a record-low 62 in the first round.

The BBC quoted him after that first round:

"

I also probably then realized that I wasn't going to be the guy to shoot 62. It's one of those things that you don't want to go through your mind, thinking about your final score and stuff like that. So I got rid of that quickly and got on to playing the 17th, but unfortunately dropped one up the last.

"

That right there is the big difference between the Adam Scotts and Luke Donalds of the golf world compared to Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy.

Along with Tiger Woods, you have to have the ability to believe in your own head that you can execute any shot at any time no matter the situation.

As that four-hole collapse showed that following Sunday, Scott has not mastered the game between his ears. If you do not master that, then you do not master golf.

He has had a career so far that 98 percent of his peers would take in an absolute heartbeat, but one cannot really look at his body of work and say his glass is half full at this point because he has yet to really take advantage of his talent.

Scott is living proof that we can all be our worst enemy. The fact he bounced back to contend at the PGA Championship in August is a testament to his game.

At some point, he has to break through and win a major. He has a career of top-10 finishes in big events, so the talent is really there.

He has to now tell himself that he wants this more than anything.

His time is now. Will he heed the call?

*Statistics via PGA Tour.