How losing the Open Championship helped Adam Scott win the Masters

Back in 2012, Adam Scott was still seeking his first major championship. He had come darn close a handful of times, including a T3 at the 2006 PGA Championship and an excruciating loss at the 2011 Masters, when he led through 70 holes only to lose to Charl Schwartzel’s four-birdie blitz on holes 15-18.

Scott then finished solo seventh at the 2011 PGA Championship and posted a top-8 finish at the Masters in 2012, followed by a T15 at the 2012 U.S. Open. At the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s, Scott matched the course record with his opening round and had amassed a four-shot lead heading into the final round. It appeared that his coronation day had finally arrived.

Scott maintained his four-shot lead with only four holes remaining. But a series of four bogeys on those final four holes eradicated his lead, and he ended up losing the title to Ernie Els. It was the biggest disappointment of his career, and on this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, Scott explained how he managed to turn the devastating loss at the Open into the a Masters win the following year.

“It was a huge motivator,” Scott said of the loss. “I know I can win a major now. I played good enough to win that Open Championship. And that’s the first time in my career — it was 12 years into major championship golf for me — that I truly, truly believed, with evidence, that I could win a major. I was right there. It was all up to me. Par the last four, and I win by four.”

Scott said he felt he was playing the best golf of his life and experienced a new level of determination to win the year’s final major, the 2012 PGA Championship. When that didn’t work out (Scott finished T11), he set his sights on the Masters.

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“I had eight months to figure out how to win the Masters,” Scott said. “And for that short period of time, is probably the closest I was to relentlessness. Nothing was going to stop me from winning a major. I was on a mission.”

Scott said he believed he was “too soft” at the Open, and wasn’t able to convert down the stretch when he needed to.

“At the Masters was the complete opposite,” Scott said. “I toughened up. I needed to be. I birdied the last hole, and so did [Angel] Cabrera. But the golf down the stretch was flawless golf. And Cabrera too. I just outlasted him and made a birdie in the playoff. So that’s how it fell for me. I lost the Open but won the Masters.”

For more from Scott, including his favorite holes at Augusta, and what winning the Masters requires that is different from the other majors, check out the full interview below.