At renowned Royal Melbourne, Adam Scott is experiencing a remarkable career first

MELBOURNE, Australia — After 25 years and almost 100 consecutive majors as a pro, former Masters champion Adam Scott doesn’t have many firsts left in his career.

Except for one really bizarre scenario: The 45-year-old Aussie has never played an Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.

Arguably Australia’s most famous golfer over the past two decades, Scott has not teed up in his national championship on his homeland’s most celebrated golf course. (Last year, Golf Digest ranked the West course at No. 5 on World's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.)

Scott played two Presidents Cups (2011, 2019) and a World Cup of Golf on the crown jewel of the Melbourne Sandbelt golf region of Victoria, but the Australian Open hasn’t been held on its Composite layout since 1991, when Scott was 11.

“The fact we haven’t played a national open here since 1991 is going to make this a really special one for every Aussie golfer,” former World No. 1 Scott said Tuesday. “It’s one of those things that I grew up dreaming about, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t happened in my career yet. I'm very excited about the opportunity of being out there and trying to win another Aussie Open."

At least the tournament organizers, the DP World Tour and Golf Australia, saved the occasion for what is arguably the biggest Australian Open ever. Larger crowds are predicted this week than the 2019 Presidents Cup, when Tiger Woods went undefeated as the U.S. playing captain.

Why? Well, it starts with having a 72-hole stroke play-event at Royal Melbourne. The field is mouth-watering. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy is headlining the group of 156 while the usual Australian stars have returned—Min Woo Lee, Cam Smith, Karl Vilips, Marc Leishman, Cam Davis, Lucas Herbert, and two-time Australian Open winner Matt Jones.

The event's DP World Tour co-sanctioning has brought the likes of Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Nicolas Colsaerts among others, while there's also a host of LIV golfers in the field. That group includes 2023 champion Joaquin Niemann and last week's Australian PGA champion, David Puig.

Augusta National also boosted the Australian Open significantly when it chose the event as one of six national opens to invite the winner, if not already exempt, to the 2026 Masters. That's in addition to the three spots into the 154th Open Championship on offer as a stop on the R&A's Open Qualifying Series.

Not that Scott, the first Aussie to win at Augusta, in 2013, needs to worry about the Masters given he's got a past champions invitation for life.

He's simply here to try and lift the Stonehaven Cup for a second time after his 2009 triumph, but for the first time on one of his favorite courses in the world. Scott adores Royal Melbourne so much he donated the set of clubs he used to win the 2013 Masters to the club to display in its foyer.

"I think winning the Aussie Open at Royal Melbourne has one of those asterisks next to it where it's just that little bit more meaningful and it's nothing against anywhere else," Scott said. "For anyone who’s here, to win it, it’s a feather in the cap. It’s something to be incredibly proud of."

For Scott, competing at Royal Melbourne evokes the memories of watching some of his boyhood idols win Australian Opens at Royal Melbourne, such as Greg Norman’s victories at the Composite course in 1985 and 1987, as well as former tour pro turned TV commentator, Wayne Riley, in 1991.

"You're growing up watching great events, obviously the majors come to mind, but as a young Aussie kid watching the Aussie Open here, I remember 'Radar' [Riley] holing the putt [and] obviously Greg winning [seemingly] all of them [at Royal Melbourne], was something that you dreamt of doing," Scott said.

Graham Denholm

"This is a chance for me to step back and remember how it felt as that little kid watching these great players play the national championship on one of the greatest courses in the world."

Being on the Melbourne Sandbelt is also a reminder of Scott's 11 consecutive Presidents Cup appearances for the International team. Currently at World No. 62, he is likely to make or be picked for next year's Cup at Medinah. Scott also has dreams of making the team for the 2028 edition at Kingston Heath, when he will be 48 years old.

"Yeah, I think it's the forefront of every international player's mind coming around," he said. "It's going to be a big event in Medinah and personally for me it's top of the list of goals for next year is making Geoff [Ogilvy’s] team.

“[In 2028], I'm fairly confident I can still be a relevant player at the top of the game, but I'd like to play at Kingston Heath. I think that'd be incredible."

There are so many reasons for Scott—who didn't manage a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour this year—to keep chasing his next big victory. He was fourth in the final 2024 FedEx Cup standings. This year, he was in the hunt on Sunday at the PGA Championship and in the final group and tied for the lead at the U.S. Open at Oakmont. The fire still burns.

"I set pretty high goals when I was a kid I think, and I'm far from living up to many of them, but I'd like to notch off a few more of them, if I can tick off a few more of them before I'm not playing on tour anymore, I don't know when that is, but I still feel like the game is good enough to do it," Scott said.

"The stats and all the things we kind of measure by [suggest] I'm still relevant. If I can just narrow my focus a little bit and sharpen it up to get back to winning some events, I think there are some big ones in me still."

Including, he hopes, an Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.