Why haven’t the Internationals won more? Adam Scott blames himself

It’s January 15th and Adam Scott and I are on the back of the driving range at Emirates Golf Club, in Dubai. It’s the Monday of the Dubai Desert Classic, which is the start of Scott’s season. He just posed for a bunch of photos for the March issue of GOLF Magazine and has been cooly strolling from one topic to the next. 

LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann drops by our seats to say hello and playfully ask Adam why he’s still talking to this journalist. Joaco isn’t necessarily wrong. Scott and I have been yapping for 45 minutes now, and it’s nearly lunch o’clock. Only we’ve got one more pressing topic to discuss: the upcoming Presidents Cup. 

It may have been eight months away at the time, but the topic of major team golf competitions is ripe for conjecture at any point in the year. In part because it has been more than two decades since the Internationals won this team competition against the United States, but also because Scott witnessed the Ryder Cup in Rome. It was just three-months fresh at that point, and due to the result — a dominant victory by Team Europe — it was still being litigated in headlines, press conferences, even the Full Swing documentary. On the driving range in Dubai, where the only American Ryder Cupper in the field was Brian Harman, the referendum on Team USA was still alive. 

“One of these years,” I told Scott, then a 10-time International team member, “you guys are going to knock off that American team and it is going to freak people out.” 

He agreed. Whether it was with the notion of an impending International victory or that it would send shockwaves through their opponents, Scott had clearly given it plenty of thought. And his gut instinct was to blame himself. 

“Look, I think I need to be quite critical on myself,” Scott said that day. “I think it’s coming. I think the team the last two Cups has moved in a fantastic direction. I have to be a leader by winning four and a half points. Not [going] 2-2. That ain’t getting it done.”

Unfortunately for him, he’s right. Scott will tee it up this week at his 11th (consecutive!) Presidents Cup, making him by far the most experienced pro in the field. Now 44 years old, the last time the Internationals took anything but a loss in this event, he was a 23-year-old rookie playing alongside peak-of-his-powers Ernie Els.

Scott went 3-2 that week, in a team tie. Two years later he starred again, going 3-1-1, undefeated until a singles match against Jim Furyk. But ever since, he’s failed to win more matches than he’s lost, playing in 49 of 50 sessions in his career. There isn’t a golfer on the planet who has played (and continues to play) more for his side than Scott for the Internationals, but we’re still on the back of that driving range addressing one of the ultimate truisms of team sports: it doesn’t matter how well you play as an individual unless the team wins. So Scott continues gazing into the mirror.

“I think we’ve got a great chance,” Scott continued. “I know we’re not as — maybe quite — put together as the European team, but the American team took a few licks there in Rome. It will be interesting to see their dynamic. They generally come very, very confident to the Presidents Cups because they win them all. But we’ve got a chance if we can put it together. For me, I just need to win. I need a Presidents Cup where I win every match.”

By that he means play like Jon Rahm or Rory McIlroy have played in recent Ryder Cups, a view he got up close in 2023 when he attended the event for the first time in Rome. Lead in experience, lead by example and lead by winning matches. That’s a lot to ask of a golfer in his 25th year as a pro. But he’s the one doing the asking. 

What’s most interesting about those statements from eight months ago is that Scott was oddly confident. He was 43 years old and feeling refreshed. Not in the typical way every pro golfer is when the calendars turn over in January. But in an I’ve only got so many more first days of school left kind of way. He had just enjoyed a lovely holiday break and was rejuvenated for 2024. He was 37th in the world, and according to DataGolf he was 47th. Covid had taken a bigger hit on his game — he won one of the last Tour events prior to the pandemic shutdown — than mostly anyone else. But something clicked with his equipment and speed pursuits in 2023 and surely, 2024 was going to deliver something fruitful. I asked him, if 2024 is eventually deemed a successful one in Adam Scott’s golfing career, what does it look like?

“I’d really like to win a couple tournaments,” he said that day. For someone who hasn’t won in four years, that felt like a lot. 

“It’s really the only thing I’d really want to do,” he continued, admitting that it’s gotten a bit annoying that his kids are now old enough to question why dad is so good but doesn’t bring home the trophy anymore. 

What followed that admission was as close as you can get to fulfillment without actually checking those boxes. Scott was the comfiest leader in the clubhouse at the Scottish Open in July, only to be pipped by Bob MacIntyre’s eagle-par-birdie heroics, to the tune of the a crowd singing the Scottish national anthem. A month later he was tied for the lead turning to the back nine at the BMW Championship, only to lose by one to Keegan Bradley.

Two different flips of two different coins and Scott could have bagged multiple tournaments. Instead, he will have no choice but to try and bag multiple Presidents Cup matches. Maybe every match. Whether or not we keep track doesn’t matter. We know he’ll be keeping track himself, because 2-2 ain’t getting it done.