Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:10 pm EDT
This was not a good weekend to be Adam Scott. Shoot, this hasn't been a good year to be Adam Scott, but this weekend was particularly painful. Scott, as you no doubt know, is the former wunderkind -- ranked #3 in the world as recently as last freakin' year -- has fallen off the edge of the universe in one of the most precipitous drops in golf history.
But Scott got an unlikely shot at redemption from fellow Aussie Greg Norman, whose lunatic unexpected pick of Scott to join the International squad of the Presidents Cup team incited muffled laughter from all over the golf world. Norman had confidence in Scott in a way that nobody -- possibly not even Scott himself -- else possessed. Could Scott rise to the challenge? Could he, as Waggle Room indicated, remake his struggling career Michelle Wie-at-Solheim style?
Um ... no.
Scott posted a miserable 1-4 record, worst on the Internationals aside from Camilo Villegas's zero-win performance. Scott got knocked around all week, culminating in his 4-and-3 walloping at the hands of Stewart Cink on Sunday.
So where does Scott go from here? At a time when he desperately needed to be away from golf and working on his game (or at least his mental state), he got knocked around like Kimbo Slice all tournament long, and whatever confidence he had in his game is almost certainly shot right now.
It's not over for Scott, obviously; the guy's got far too much talent, and it's entirely possible that he's suffering the lingering effects of a knee injury he suffered while surfing in 2008. But the last thing he needs is more pressure, so he probably ought to go hustle some club pros in Sydney or something.
And the next time Greg Norman calls, let it go to voicemail.
Devil Ball is a golf blog edited by Jay Busbee. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

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23 Comments
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Whereas Wie was younger and still under the control of her family, who correctly navigated her back to serious golf once the more glitzy efforts lost their momentum, Scott was old enough that he was on his own, and/or in the hands of PR/management people who may not have had serious golf interests in mind.
The string of stars he's dated and the photoshoots / ads / Hollywoodish events he's gravitated towards... indicate that that really may be the problem, Hopefully, this President's Cup debacle may act as a wake-up call and he'll be able to get back on track not waste his talent. If that's what he wants.
I saw him at Bethpage on rainy morning during the US Open. He was all alone on the soggy putting green, and even with rain gear on he was ultra, ultra thin, Skinny. Anorexic looking. That's when I first suspected that he was going down that road.
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a golfer is just a "hack". Tiger's the only current great golfer who has never been in a slump. I think it's
the most impressive thing about him in my mind. Whatever the cause of his slump, I hope that Adam
Scott turns his game around because he seems like a good guy from what I've seen and hopefully he can
play well again.
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lay off and stop nit-picking adam scott to death !
leave him alone ! capische ! ! !
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He let the other players and the other golf associations around the globe down with his choice and his pairings. Granted the Yanks played well, he sucked BIG TIME.
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