Adam Scott’s Presidents Cup heartbreak ended with uncomfortable truth

At the 2024 Open Championship, Adam Scott was asked what kept him and Justin Rose, both of whom came up short of their second major that week, going. Scott delivered his answer with his trademark smile and a chuckle.

“Always being a ‘Nearly Great’ of the game is spurring us on in our later years,” Scott said that Sunday at Troon.

It was honest and illuminating. For all he has achieved in the game — a Masters champion, a Players champion, World No. 1 — Adam Scott still views himself as an underachiever. A year later at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Scott offered a little more as he entered Sunday with another real chance to finally knock off major No. 2.

“I’ve put together a nice career, but I think another major would really go a long way in fulfilling my own self, when it’s all said and done,” Scott said. It was an honest and deeply personal thing for Scott to offer. That for all he has accomplished, he’s still searching for the things to fulfill his own self. Things that he knows might never come. And what happens if they don’t? What happens if the shadows finally catch him before he can grab one of the things he’s still chasing? How do you accept that and find peace?

Adam Scott left Oakmont that week a tough-luck loser as J.J. Spaun roared to victory. Then 44 years old, Scott told The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn that he could push on for a little longer, but eventually all things end.

“I feel like I can keep this up for another 18 months, for sure,” Scott told Quinn at Oakmont. “Then, at that point, I’ll be 46. I think I can push myself for the next year and a half and then reassess, you know?”

Almost 18 months later, Scott is still chasing that final piece — the one that would make him feel his golf journey is complete. While another calendar year went by without major No. 2 arriving, Scott had a chance this past week to achieve another one of his golf heart’s great desires, one he has been desperate to check off his list.

Win the Presidents Cup.

Scott made his Presidents Cup debut in 2003, when the Internationals and Americans tied. Since then, Scott has made every Presidents Cup team, and the Internationals have lost every one. Knocking off the Americans and finally hoisting the Presidents Cup has become a version of unfinished business for the International team’s elder statesman. He suffered tough losses in 2015 in South Korea and in 2019 in Australia, where the Internationals jumped out to a 9-5 lead before the U.S. rallied for a 16-14 win. On that Sunday in Australia, Scott lost his singles match to Xander Schauffele, a defeat that left a scar.

“I felt like I’d let the side down,” Scott told Golfweek’s Adam Schupak in 2024. “That one slipped through our fingers. It was months and months and months of trying to figure out how it slipped away because it felt like that was going to be our time. It would have been an epic victory to win there. It’s something that I’m still looking for in my career.”

All that brings us to last week at Medinah, where Scott and the Internationals arrived in Chicago as heavy underdogs but with the belief that they had the culture and players to knock off the Americans. At the start of the week, Scott was open about his desperation to check this off his list, and the realization that eventually, perhaps someday soon, he won’t be on these teams is setting in.

“I want to win one desperately, and I don’t know how many more I can possibly play in,” Scott said at Medinah.

“I feel like it’s a huge opportunity for me,” Scott told The Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson. “There was probably a period 10 years ago, in the middle of my career, where it was, ‘Oh, this (winning) is going to happen.’ But now there’s not many more, that’s for sure. I’ve been given another chance. It might be the last one.”

Scott and the Internationals once again jumped out to a lead after sweeping the Friday foursomes session and then held off an American wave on Saturday to take a three-point lead into Sunday. It was the first time in history that the Internationals led entering Sunday on American soil. It seemed like the stars had aligned for Scott to capture one of his remaining white whales and do so in a fashion that would send American golf into a tailspin. But another opportunity to grab self-fulfillment brings the same questions.

How many more chances will there be? If not now, when?

It all seemed set up for the Internationals and Scott to have a storybook Sunday in Chicago. But as has been the story at the Presidents Cup, the Americans blitzed the Internationals in singles, storming back to win 17-13. Scott was among the singles losers. With the Internationals reeling, he needed to flip his match against Patrick Cantlay to give them hope. Instead, Cantlay buried a 57-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and Scott lost 2 and 1.

With another chance having slipped away, Scott sat at the dais at Medinah and was confronted with what was, what could’ve been and what lies on the horizon. Scott lauded his teammates but admitted he didn’t play well enough against the Americans.

Then, Scott was asked about playing on the team in 2028 or potentially captaining it in Australia.

“I don’t know. It’s a long way away. Sounds like a lot of work,” Scott said on Sunday with a smile and a laugh. “I don’t know. It’s a long way away. We’ll see if I’m — if I can contribute to the team in any way, I’ll do whatever for this team.”

Scott still has dreams to achieve. He’s still ranked 45th in the world, and his ball speed is up. He still has the drive to be one of the best players in the world. He still believes he can add to a resume that feels light, based on his world-class talent and longevity. But he’s also a realist. Time keeps moving, and eventually the last of the sand falls through the hourglass.

Eventually, your story is written in the chances that turned to smoke in your hands and in the moments of redemption that never arrived.