NiceBallz - Play Ballzy

There has been a lot of chatter lately about Adam Scott, the dashing 20-something pro golfer once ranked as high as No. 3 in the world and whose game has effectively disappeared in the past year.

Scott is in a serious slump. He slipped last week to No. 46 in the world rankings and missed the cut at the PGA Championship with a 17-over-par score (several club professionals beat him). Now he and his swing coach Butch Harmon have recently decided to take a break.

Scott is an incredible talent, he’s been compared with fellow Australian golf star Greg Norman and he has (or had) one of the most textbook swings on Tour. He’s a former Players Championship winner, too. Heady stuff. At 29 years old and with his skill, surely he will rebound and return to form in the future.

However, for now Adam Scott is a case study in what is wrong with some of the younger players on the PGA Tour.

For one, he has seemed to overly emulate the circa 2000 swing of Tiger Woods, who was coached by Harmon at the time. Scott’s swing is sound, but the object of the game is not to make a perfect swing, rather to get the ball in the hole. More than 180 players on Tour putt better than Scott, statistically speaking. Ouch. In that regard, he’s like his buddy Sergio Garcia. Both possess silky swings that don’t always translate into good scores. Style over substance?

Meanwhile, Scott reminds us of Davis Love III, another talented player of an earlier generation who has been criticized for not getting as much out of his talent as possible. Like Love, Scott has been often injured, having broken his hand last year. But, Scott — again like Love who enjoys skiing, horses and motorcycles – has seemed as interested in surfing and supposedly dating foxy women as in practicing and improving his golf. Nothing wrong with having outside interests, but the big money in the game of golf today has allowed players to be mediocre and still make an incredible living.

Scott is 28th on the all-time PGA Tour career money list, having made more than $19 million in prize money already. Why try any harder when you’re set for life financially, you’re on the cover of magazines and otherwise living the high life?

And, today’s focus on marketing and image has some pro golfers as interested in photo shoots and fashion as practice and flop shots. Again, some of the younger players seem to care more about how they look than how they perform.

We hope Scott gets things straightened out with his game. Another rival for the game’s best and a marketable (careful) star for the future would be great for the PGA Tour. But we’re concerned that Scott, like many of his peers and underperformers from an earlier era, will simply be content to post some Top 25 finishes, cash some endorsement checks and spend some time at their various vacation homes. Lots of corporate executives do essentially the same thing, but settling for mediocrity sucks in any profession.

One thing’s for sure about Adam Scott, he’ll look better than most doing it. If you’re into that sort of thing.