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To Scott, the 15-foot putt looked straightforward. Pin-high on the right of Augusta National’s 10th green, he felt his line was a cup’s width above the hole.

He just needed to calm his nerves on this second playoff hole, put a nice smooth stroke on his broomstick putter and trickle his Titleist across that slope and on the path to Masters glory …

But his caddie, Steve Williams, was having none of it.

“No way, it’s at least two cups, Adam,” Williams said firmly. “Trust me, I know this putt.”

The straight-talking New Zealander recalled a similar putt when carrying Greg Norman’s bag at Augusta 25 years earlier. And he was adamant there was more right-to-left curve in the putt than Scott could see.“And the reason I remembered it is that it’s so difficult to get the ball to the back of the 10th green – almost everyone comes up short,” Williams said later in an interview. “So I’d stored away that information.”

Looking at the video of that 2013 Masters playoff now, you can see Williams standing behind Scott, who is on his haunches and lining up the putt, shaking his head vigorously at Scott’s suggested line – and setting him straight.

Swayed by the conviction in his caddie’s voice, Scott aimed two cups wide, swung the broomstick in a perfect pendulum and watched as the ball tracked down the slope, just as Williams had predicted, before toppling into the cup.

The scenes of jubilation which followed have become part of Masters’ folklore: Scott, his pants flecked by rain, leaning backwards, arms outstretched, veins bulging in his neck, yelling out in triumph.

His vanquished opponent and friend, President’s Cup teammate Ángel Cabrera, walked towards him offering his hand and then gave Scott a heartfelt hug.

So, after almost 80 years of trying and seven runner-up finishes, Australia had finally produced its first Masters champion.

On Australian talkback radio and internet forums, one question kept recurring the day after Scott’s drought-breaking victory: Where did his feat rank in the pantheon of great Aussie sporting achievements?

There are four or five moments that always get mentioned when “the pantheon” question arises: Cadel Evans’ victory in cycling’s Tour de France in 2011; Rod Laver winning tennis’ Grand Slam in 1962 and 1969; Cathy Freeman, an indigenous Australian sprinter who lit the Olympic flame at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, claiming the 400m gold medal days later; and Australia in 1983 wrenching the America’s Cup out of the New York Yacht Club for the first time in 132 years, ending the longest winning streak in sports history.   

Now, though, they had a challenger. Several respected commentators thought Scott was worthy not only of a place in our shrine of sport but his effort in conquering Augusta actually surpassed all those world-beating feats that had gone before him.

(When Australia won that America’s Cup, incidentally, the prime minister at the time, the garrulous Bob Hawke – who once had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for downing a yard of ale, 1.4 litres, in world-record time of 11 seconds – jubilantly declared: “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.’’)

Mercifully, 30 years later, bosses around the country again heeded Hawkey’s message and tolerated the tardy arrivals. 

This year, Scott tied for 34that Augusta, 18 shots off victor Dustin Johnson.

For any Australian with a serious interest in sport – and in this wide, brown land that means a fair slice of the population – the Monday of the Masters is the day when you arrive to work late.

The final stages of the 2013 tournament attracted even greater Australian interest than before, with Scott, Jason Day and Marc Leishman all in contention after 54 holes.

And when Scott lined up that 4-metre curler across the hill at the 74th hole, the nation held its breath.

The resulting roar from Australia’s living rooms could have been heard all the way down Magnolia Drive, as the Twittersphere in this part of the world revved into overdrive and everyone from Prime Minister Julia Gillard down joined in the nationwide high-fiving.

“Huge congratulations to Adam Scott – the first Australian ever to win the Masters,” tweeted Gillard.

Aussie golfers Norman, who admitted to watching with a tear in his eye, Steve Elkington and Geoff Ogilvy as well as a host of other sporting, business and political figures lauded the win. Even US surfing champion Kelly Slater and UK boy band One Direction got in on the act.

So, seven years on, what effect did Scott’s victory have on Australian golf?

Those who witnessed Norman’s impact on the local scene in the 1980s after he swaggered his way to the world No.1 ranking, and his first British Open, were hoping it might produce the same kind of grass-roots surge in popularity. That school children might look up from their smartphones long enough to see in Scott, a wholesome and charming ambassador for the game, a figure worth emulating.

Yet it has not exactly panned out that way.

Yes, Day won the US PGA Championship in 2015 and reached the world’s No. 1 ranking for a total of 51 weeks after that triumph, but his career trajectory has since been stalled by injury and self-doubt. He sat No. 41 in the world rankings as the Masters began and is winless since May 2018.

Even though he turned 40 this year, Scott remained the highest-ranked Australian, at No. 15. Marc Leishman was next best, at No. 26, and continues to be a regular presence on PGA Tour leaderboards, while Cam Smith is a dogged competitor and Lucas Herbert is making waves on the European Tour.

But the anticipated torrent of talent has never materialised at the top echelon of the men’s game.

On the women’s side, Minjee Lee was ranked No. 8, but there’s only one other Australian in the top 50, Hannah Green at No. 21.

At the grass-roots level, golf remains a popular pastime among a certain, older demographic – and even the smallest country towns usually boast a golf course, even if only a nine-hole layout with sandscrape greens.

But the sport, as is the case in just about every other country, still struggles to win over the younger crowd, for whom it is seen as decidedly dowdy, frumpy and un-cool – a game their parents play.

Interestingly, the pandemic has actually proved a boon for golf in this country. In a recent report, titled Australian Golf Rounds – Trends and Impacts of COVID-19, it was determined that competitive rounds played by people aged between 20 and 49 had surged 44 percent since April.

The report found that golf’s natural advantages, which allow players to exercise outdoors while abiding by social-distancing guidelines, had sparked an increase in interest from players in every age group up to 75.

So, in the greatest of ironies, perhaps it will take a deadly pandemic, which is causing untold misery around the planet, to help reveal golf’s beauty – and turn around the sport’s fortunes.

As for Scott, in his own quiet way, he will keep returning to his homeland each summer to support the Australasian Tour, do his bit for the pre-tournament promotions, accept every media request for an interview, sign each autograph book thrust his way and hope that, by being thoroughly decent, he can be the catalyst for a slow-burn transformation in the game’s popularity.

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