From Collapse to Green Jacket: Adam Scott Is Back Near the Top at Wentworth at 46

Anyone watching Adam Scott walk around Wentworth at the BMW PGA Championship this week is looking at a golfer who has been part of the world's elite for more than a quarter of a century. The Australian is now 46, has been world number one, has won fourteen times on the PGA Tour and has earned almost $75 million in official prize money on that tour alone. Yet his career may be best summed up by two tournaments played within nine months of each other.

At the first, Scott seemed about to fulfil his great dream, until he collapsed in dramatic fashion. At the second, he got another chance to make history. This time he did not let it slip.

Australia waited years for that one golfer

Golf played a big role in Scott's life from an early age. His father Phil taught him the game on a small par-3 course in Adelaide when he was about four years old. Scott proved exceptionally good and, as a teenager, won the Australian Boys' Amateur twice, among other titles. He then moved to the United States to play for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before turning professional in 2000.

It soon became clear that Australia had a special talent on its hands. Scott won several European events in his early years and then broke through in America as well. In 2004, at just 23, he won The Players Championship, and a few years later he was already third in the world rankings.

But something was missing. For years Scott was seen as the possible successor to his idol Greg Norman, but a major title would not come. For Australian golf that was especially painful, because no Australian had ever won the Masters.

Four holes changed everything

In July 2012 that long search finally seemed to be over. Scott played brilliantly at The Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes and, with just four holes to play, was four shots clear.

In golf, that is a huge margin. Scott really only had to bring his lead home in a controlled way. No crazy risks, keep the ball in play and make a few pars. His first major seemed within reach.

Then came one of the most painful collapses in recent golf history.

Scott bogeyed the 15th. Another bogey followed on 16. Then the 17th went wrong too, and on the 18th he made his fourth bogey in a row. While Scott was losing shot after shot, Ernie Els held firm. In the end, Els won The Open by one stroke.

Four holes earlier, Scott had been four shots ahead.

Now he had nothing at all.

Nine months later, another chance

For many golfers, a defeat like that could have lingered for years. Scott got a new opportunity remarkably quickly. Nine months later, at the 2013 Masters, he was again in contention in the closing stages of a major.

This time the pressure was perhaps even greater. Scott was not only trying to win his first major; he could also do something no great Australian golfer before him had managed: win the green jacket at Augusta National.

On the 18th hole, Scott needed to hole a long birdie putt to reach nine under par. Rain was falling on Augusta and darkness was slowly setting in.

Scott hit the putt.

It rolled towards the hole and dropped.

Scott threw his arms in the air and roared with joy. For a moment it looked as if he had just won the Masters. Only Ángel Cabrera was not finished yet.

Cabrera hits straight back

The Argentine also needed a birdie on the 18th to catch Scott. His approach finished right next to the flag and Cabrera made the putt. The Masters would be decided in a play-off.

On the first extra hole, both players made par. Then they moved on to the 10th.

There, Cabrera got the first big chance. His birdie putt missed by centimetres. That meant Scott knew exactly what he had to do. He had a putt of roughly four to five metres for the win.

This was another of those moments when his whole career seemed to come together in a few seconds. Nine months earlier he had made four bogeys in a row with his first major there for the taking. Now he again had a single stroke that could change everything.

Scott hit the putt, his caddie Steve Williams having helped him read the line as it grew darker and darker.

The ball disappeared into the hole.

This time it really was over.

The first Australian ever

Adam Scott was Masters champion.

Even more important for his home country: he became the first Australian ever to win the Masters. Greg Norman had come close several times but never managed to claim the green jacket. After his win, Scott said that as far as he was concerned, part of the victory also belonged to his idol.

The win also changed the way people looked at his career. The golfer who nine months earlier had suffered one of the most painful defeats of his life had held firm at his very next big chance.

A year later came another special moment. In 2014 Scott reached number one in the world rankings for the first time. The boy who learned golf from his father on a small par-3 course in Adelaide had officially become the best golfer in the world.

Thirteen years later, he is still there

Perhaps that is exactly what makes his appearance at the 2026 BMW PGA Championship so interesting. Scott is now 46 and competing against golfers who are sometimes almost half his age. His last PGA Tour win dates back to 2020, but he has far from disappeared from the top. In 2026 he has collected three top-ten finishes on the PGA Tour.

And at Wentworth on Thursday he showed straight away that he can still compete.

Scott opened the BMW PGA Championship with a round of 67, five under par. That left him just one shot behind leaders Aaron Rai and Joakim Lagergren after the first round. Ludvig Åberg and several other players also opened at five under, putting Scott right among the big names at the top of the leaderboard.

That stands out in a field that includes Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Reed, Jon Rahm and Åberg. The BMW PGA Championship has a $9 million purse this year and is one of the most important events on the DP World Tour.

One more win?

Scott has nothing left to prove financially. On the PGA Tour alone he has earned almost $75 million in official prize money over his career. He has fourteen PGA Tour wins to his name, won the Masters and has stood at the top of the world rankings.

Yet it is precisely his age that makes him so interesting to follow this weekend. Scott turned professional in 2000. Some of the players he is up against at Wentworth this week had not even been born yet.

More than 25 years later, he is once again among the leaders of a big international tournament after the opening round.

And perhaps that is the most beautiful part of Adam Scott's story. In 2012, for four terrible holes, his career seemed defined by what he had given away. Nine months later, one putt at Augusta rewrote that story completely.

Thirteen years on, at Wentworth, he has another chance to show that he is not finished yet.