Australian Open: Adam Scott misses cut by a single shot
Adam Scott suffered a major blow to his President Cup preparations after mising tyhe cut by the barest of margins at the Australian Open as Matt Jones birdied the final hole to lead the way.
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It’s the cruellest cut in sport and Adam Scott found himself on the wrong side of it after the golfing gods turned on him at the Australian Open.
Golf’s always been a fickle game and Scott’s had more ups than downs so you won’t hear him complain but an unlucky break on his final hole saw him miss the cut at the country’s biggest tournament since he turned professional in 2000.
The former world number one hit his best drive of the day on his last hole but struck it so well that the ball trickled into a water hazard and although he salvaged a par by draining a tricky eight-foot downhill putt, it wasn’t enough.
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His four-under 67 left him at even-par for the tournament after his sloppy opening round of 75 - tied for 72nd and just one stroke shy of the cut off score of one-under for two rounds.
“I didn’t try and hammer it, I thought everyone on the tee was good shotting it, but it must have got a pretty firm bounce down there,” said Scott, who now heads to Melbourne early to prepare for next week’s Presidents Cup.
In a worrying sign for an Internationals team that is already heavy underdogs against the Tiger Woods led American line-up, Taiwan’s CT Pan also missed the cut although their teammates Marc Leishman (67), Cameron Smith (70), Louis Oosthuizen (66) and Abraham Ancer (66) all survived to the weekend.
Aussie Matt Jones, who beat Scott and Jordan Spieth to win the Stonehaven Cup at the Australian Golf Club four years ago, birdied his last hole for a brilliant round of six-under 65 to shoot to the top of the leaderboard at 10-under but with a big pack breathing down his neck at the halfway stage.
That left him a stroke clear of his countryman Dimitrios Papadatos (65) and England’s Paul Casey (65) who birdied each of his last four holes with a group of five, including Oosthuzen, a further shot adrift.
“Any time you get to lead is fantastic. It would have been better to be more in front, but I’ll take one in front. Still a long way to go,” Jones said.
“I’ve finished second and first here, so I should feel pretty comfortable. Knowing where to miss a golf course I find is very important to me, so I kind of know where to miss and the types of shot you’ll need in certain areas if you do miss a green regulation.”
Papadatos finished runner-up to Ancer at last year’s Australian Open, earning himself a spot in the British Open but he wants more after getting a taste of it.
That was his first and so far only appearance at a major but he said winning the Australian Open would mean as much as playing in the sport’s biggest tournaments.
“I’m just creeping my way up the leaderboard. It’s good,” he said.
“I love just being in Australia. It’s obviously the fifth major this week, for me it is, anyway.
“As an Australian playing back at home, yeah, it’s massive.”
Queensland’s Shae Wools-Cobb matched the best round of the tournament with a 65 to join Oosthuizen, American Cameron Tringale, New Zealand’s Denzel Ieremia and Japanese amateur Takumi Kanaya at eight-under, on a congested leaderboard that saw a host of big names join Scott in missing the cut, including Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia.
Originally published as Australian Open: Adam Scott misses cut by a single shot