PGA Championship 2013: Adam Scott Forcing His Way into Best Golfer Conversation

Adam Scott’s sizzling opening round at Oak Hill Country Club cooled down the stretch, but the talented Aussie is exactly where we expect him to be in a major championship these days—at the top of the PGA Championship leaderboard.

The 2013 Masters champion flirted with the course record Thursday before settling for a five-under 65, good enough for a share of the 18-hole lead alongside Jim Furyk

The solid effort not only puts Scott in prime position for a run at his second major this year but is also further testament that he’s fast on the heels of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in "best golfer in the world" discussions.

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"Just got on a bit of a roll and hit a few shots close," Scott said, per ESPN. "I didn't have too much putting to do. You've got to take advantage when it happens, because it doesn't happen too much in the majors. Nothing to complain about in 65."

For much of his career, the extremely gifted Scott had more promise and potential than results and accomplishments—especially in the majors.

That all changed earlier this year at the Masters. The 33-year-old captured his first career major in thrilling form at Augusta National to wash away years of major-championship frustration.

He followed that victory with a tie for third at the British Open last month, holding the final-round lead for a brief period on the back nine before giving way to Mickelson.

That strong performance helped to ease his 2012 British Open collapse at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, in which he bogeyed the final four holes to lose by a shot to Ernie Els. Scott handled that defeat with the same grace with which he is now accepting success—something most everyone can appreciate.

With his first-round performance at Oak Hill, which included a run of five straight birdies on the outward nine, the nine-time PGA Tour winner is right back in the mix.

A victory at Oak Hill would further cement his place right behind Woods and Mickelson in the pecking order of golf’s elite and make him the first golfer to win two majors in the same season since Padraig Harrington in 2008. Woods, of course, was out of action when Harrington won those majors, but Scott has outplayed him in two of this year's three majors with Tiger very much on his game.

In carding six birdies against just a lone bogey, all of the skills that make Scott such an elite player were on display. He was sharp off the tee and dialed in with his irons, and he made every putt he needed to on the soft Oak Hill greens.

“That’s probably the best run I've ever had and I just hit really nice shots and didn't leave myself too much work,” Scott said, per PGA.com. “You have to take advantage of that if you are feeling that and I was through the turn there. It was a dream start after kind of a nervous first couple of holes.”

There’s no doubt Thursday’s round was his best of a terrific year. It’s equally true that such solid performances in majors are becoming the golfer’s new normal as he climbs up the world rankings.

Like Mickelson and Woods always have, Scott has begun tailoring his game toward the majors. He plays in just the biggest tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule to ensure his game is peaking at the right time.

There’s no denying it’s working for him. In the past seven majors, Scott has four top-10 finishes, highlighted by the Augusta National triumph in April.

Two other times, the world’s fifth-ranked golfer finished in the top 15, including a tie for 11th at the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. That strong performance showed incredible maturity, as it came just several weeks after his painful Open Championship loss.

As he did in his sterling 65 Thursday, Scott is playing with significant confidence on the biggest of stages. He’s avoiding the type of huge first-round mistakes that befell Mickelson and Woods at Oak Hill, and much of the credit for that has been his improved putting, which not too long ago was more Kryptonite than crutch.

Scott has always had one of the sweetest and most graceful swings in the game, but his short game let him down far too often in the past.

Evidenced by the huge putts he sunk at Augusta National and how well he's putted at Oak Hill, Scott has the confidence on the greens to win many more majors. And that’s bad news for the rest of his peers.

"I put a lot into my game the last two years with a focus on the big tournaments," Scott said at the press conference. "Everyone around me has had the same focus, as well. We come here to do business."

Now entering the prime of his career, Scott has figured out how to win majors partly because he has suffered so much in them. As the expectations have grown, so has his confidence that he belongs not behind, but alongside the likes of Woods and Mickelson.

A victory Sunday at Oak Hill will go a long way toward turning that belief into an undeniable fact.

Said Scott in the following Day 1 press conference (h/t ESPN):