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However, the 43-year-old's near-misses have
generated frustration as well as encouragement.
"It’s nice to play well … (but) I obviously haven’t found it
that easy to win over the last couple of years,” Australia's
first and only Masters winner told reporters on Wednesday.
"I played well in Bermuda but it’s not a win, and it’s hard to
fake that confidence of closing out a tournament, and beating
the entire field."
Scott is among the headliners at Royal Queensland this week,
just shaded by compatriot Cameron Smith, the defending champion
and British Open winner, for pulling power.
Scott won the first of his two Australian PGA Championship
trophies 10 years ago in his prime and the second in 2019.
Less than two months after winning the 2019 event, he broke a
four-year victory drought on the U.S. PGA Tour by claiming the
Genesis Invitational.
Naturally, Scott will hope his home event can be the
circuit-breaker again.
"I feel like I’ve got all the game to win more. I’m healthy
still and at 43 moving well.
"If I were to win this week or next week (at the Australian
Open) it could be a springboard."
Scott and Smith ended up on opposing sides of the golfing schism
wrought by LIV Golf, the former being the president of the U.S.
tour's players' advisory council and the latter a staunch member
of the Saudi-backed breakaway series.
The rival circuits, along with the European DP World Tour,
announced plans in June to merge and end the sport's bitter
divide.
The merger is supposed to be ratified by the end of the year but
an ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe into anti-trust issues
has raised concerns the deal may be delayed.
Scott said it was "really hard" to know if the tie-up would go
through.
"There’s four or five other interested parties in investing in
the PGA Tour like PIF," he added, referring to Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund.
"So management have a lot of work to do to get some final deals
on the table."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Shri
Navaratnam)
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