Aussies giddy over mate's Masters milestone

GOLD COAST, Australia — The reaction of two Aussies on the 72nd hole at Augusta National Golf Club showed just how much Adam Scott’s victory meant.

When what might have been the winning putt disappeared into the left side of the cup, Scott unleashed a uncharacteristic roar while playing partner Marc Leishman offered his own fist pump in the background, an impulse Greg Norman called “quintessentially Australian.”

“That’s not your usual situation either,” Scott said. “That’s as big as it gets. That’s the stuff that you wish can happen hitting putts on a putting green. To have a putt on the 18th on Sunday that counts is childhood-dream stuff. And to make it is huge.”

Then Scott screamed, “C’mon, Aussie!” right into the face of his Kiwi caddie from rival New Zealand.

“The whole Aussie thing … it’s just relentless all week,” he said. “When’s it gonna happen? I’d just spent the whole day with Leish, watching Jason (Day) up in front of me in kind of control most of the day. I think that’s just the raw, Aussie kid coming out in you. That’s what we used to cheer at cricket. It’s a pretty common saying down here. It was just raw emotion: the whole win, the whole celebration.”

The reaction surprised even his father.

“I can understand it now because there were a lot of Aussies on the board,” Scott’s father, Phil Scott, said. “It also indicates that it was more on their minds than it would be at Muirfield or Merion. In the eyes of all the Aussie golfers, it was Augusta. And I think if you asked all the Aussie golfers before that week which major would you most like to win, they’d all say the Masters, because no one had won it.”

Leishman wanted it just as much, but when it came down to Scott at the end, he wanted it for Australia.

“It was obviously a huge moment to get that monkey off Australia’s back and get the green jacket,” he said. “I’ve only played in two Masters, and we get asked that question every time we talk to a reporter at the Masters. I wanted that to go in for him and Australia.”

No matter where they were, Au­stralians were fixated on this Masters with three Aussies in the Sunday hunt.

Richard Sattler, who turned part of his Tasmanian potato farm into a golf destination at Barnbougle Dunes, was wandering Augusta with Scott’s father and the rest of his entourage.

“It’s an amazing place to start with, and to be there and be quite involved with it is indescribable, really,” Sattler said. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Peter Lonard, a PGA Tour pro from Sydney, was watching from a bar in Orlando, Fla.

“With nine (holes) to go, a massive storm hit Orlando, and the DirecTV went out,” Lonard said. “So we watched it on some guy’s phone at the bar over his shoulder. It was great to see him get across the line.”

While Scott’s father watched the crowd reaction from the bottom edge of the 10th fairway, where he couldn’t see the green, his mother, Pam, watched from home in Queensland.

“It was amazing to see his reaction to the win,” she said. “I don’t know if he could have handled another disappointment. The look on his face after he missed out at the British Open (in 2012) was heartbreaking, so it was even more fantastic to see him win the U.S. Masters.”

Leading Queensland amateur Cam Smith and his teammates watched footage of Scott’s winning putt over and over on their smartphones while they rode a bus to a match in Tasmania.

“We’ve got bragging rights now as the last major winner and the first Masters winner,” Smith said. “It’s awesome for Queensland and Australia.”

In Florida, Norman was deeply moved by his protege, Scott, fulfilling what he never did. “He just basically fell to the floor when he won,” Norman’s wife, Kirsten, told Australian Story. “He was in tears. He was just so excited.”

The tears came again when Scott paid tribute to Norman in his Butler Cabin interview.

“Australia, it’s a proud sporting nation, and this was one notch in the belt that we had never got,” Scott said. “Amazing that it’s come down to me, Marc and Jason Day. It could have been any of us. But there was one guy who inspired a nation of golfers, and that’s Greg Norman. He’s been incredible to me and all the young golfers in Australia, and part of this definitely belongs to him.”

Said Norman: “It shows a lot about the integrity of who Adam really is to be able to, in his moment of glory, take a step back and acknowledge who paved the way for him to go there. And it was such a special moment.”

The party Down Under

After waiting 77 years to finally win a Masters, Australians had to wait seven more months to celebrate with their green jacket liberator.

The enthusiastic monthlong reception came as a bit of a shock to Scott.

“I think I was a little surprised, because I think for the six months or so since, I had moved on and got on with things, and the tour had just rolled on,” Scott said. “But down there, it hadn’t. It was just starting again. So they were all getting revved up, and I think I was completely overwhelmed with the response to all the golf tournaments I played down there. The turnout, the crowds, the support, was just so pleasing to see how well it was all received.”

It was Scott’s idea to share the green jacket with as many Australians as he could. He wore it to banquets before tournaments in Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney. An event at Royal Melbourne sold out 326 tickets in 20 minutes.

Scott also made the unprecedented choice to wear it to sign autographs after his second round on the Gold Coast in the Aussie PGA.

“Not everyone gets to go to these functions and official events, so I thought it was a good chance for some people to get a picture or see the green jacket,” he said. “It’s only going to be down here a month and then it’s traveling again, so try and get as many people to see it or get a photo as possible, I think, is a good thing.”

Scott put on a show in his return, winning three of four tournaments on his native soil.

On his hometown Gold Coast, he outdueled Rickie Fowler in the PGA and captured the only Aussie major he hadn’t won before.

At revered Royal Melbourne, Scott held off Matt Kuchar to defend his gold jacket at the Aussie Masters. On the same venue the next week, he teamed up with Jason Day to help Australia win its first World Cup in 25 years.

His only disappointment came at Royal Sydney in the Australian Open. Scott led the field through 71 holes, but he overshot the 18th green and made bogey, allowing Rory McIlroy to sink a 15-foot birdie win.

The excitement Scott provided gave Australian golf a jolt it hadn’t seen in quite a while.

“Crowd numbers were up, TV ratings were up, and golf has never seen so many back pages of newspapers since the Norman days,” said Nicole O’Farrell, the public relations manager for the PGA of Australia.

22 million supporters for Scott

Papers across Australia promoted Scott’s return as the “Green Jacket Tour.”

“Just seeing it will give people a bit of a tingle,” Leishman said.

Scott was eager to oblige.

“The best thing since winning the Masters is just getting a kick out of people seeing the green jacket and just can’t believe that’s actually a green jacket,” he said. “It’s the most fun for me.”

The jacket accompanied Scott everywhere in Australia, as it had all year.

“Often I walk past the closet, and if it’s just hanging there, I just don’t mind slipping it on to wear it around the house for a little bit,” he said. “Every time I see it and I think, ‘This is what you’ve wanted for so long, you’ll only get it for a year, you may as well wear it as much as you can.’ ” Upon arriving at home, he wore it into the Adam Scott Co. offices. On a cool night, he threw it on as he knocked on his best mate’s door. He showed it to his godfather in Melbourne and venerable Royal Queensland coach Charlie Earp at a dinner. Family and friends checked it out at his house.

During the second round of the Australian PGA, fans were encouraged to wear green in honor of Scott’s achievement.

The “Green Day” caught fire and spread to fellow players. Even one media member dyed his hair and painted his fingernails green for the occasion.

“That’s extreme,” Scott said with a laugh.

“It was nice to see everyone out there, so many people in green today. ... So nice to see that they enjoyed seeing an Aussie win the Masters, too.”

Norman wasn’t surprised at all by the reaction at home.

“In any sport, the Australians are very nationalistic,” he said. “No different than the United States. When the ice hockey team beats Russia in the Olympics, the whole country goes crazy. When Adam Scott wins the Masters, the whole country goes crazy. When I won the British Open, the whole country goes crazy. When Australia beats England in the Test cricket called The Ashes, the whole country goes crazy. We’re very parochial, and we love our sports men and women. We’re a massive country, but a small population, so when one of 22 million are doing well, you have 22 million people pulling for you.”

Now that Scott has ended a 77-year national drought, he sees no reason for the Aussie reign to end.

“I’d like to win it again and have this thing travel with me all the time,” he said. “That’s my goal. I’d take three green jackets any day. I think I’ve got a great opportunity to do that now. The last three or four years at Augusta I’ve really developed a great feeling around that golf course. And now having won it, I’m really excited to see how that feeling changes or grows as I go back.”

Now that he’s broken through, Scott expects other Aussie golfers to join him.

“So, hopefully, the shackles are off and we’re going to have a host of Aussies up there in the champions locker room and serving dinners in the future,” Scott said.

But there could be only one first.

“It was an achievement that hadn’t been done,” Phil Scott said. “I think that’s going to be a great pride for Adam always. Plenty of people have been up Mount Everest after Hillary.”