KATHIE SHEARER:  It’s terrific to have you back at the Australian Open again.  Is this one of your favourite courses?

ADAM SCOTT:  It is, absolutely.  I’ve really enjoyed the Australian Golf Club, certainly since they did those major renovations six years ago or so.  I think it’s been brilliant and it’s obviously been a very strong venue to host this tournament. There’s been some great events here.  It’s always in as good a condition as any course in the country, I believe and it is again this week.  So, it’s all sitting right there for good golf to be played.

KATHIE SHEARER: I believe after you leave here, you’re going up to the clubhouse and they’re going to make you an honorary member.

ADAM SCOTT:  That’s right; very nice of them to do that.  I’d like to be able to use that membership a little bit more than I will, but maybe in the future I’ll get back and manage to get in a Saturday comp or something here.

KATHIE SHEARER:  How’s your golf game looking at the moment?

ADAM SCOTT:  Generally it’s been very good this year.  I haven’t played for a few weeks, since the HSBC in China, where I played quite well, except for the third round.  We’re always looking for that little something and I feel very comfortable that my game’s in good shape.  I really hope to get out there tomorrow and kind of find my rhythm early.  It’s very helpful here if you’re striking it nicely.  It takes a little pressure off because scrambling can get tough around here.  You’re going to have to do a little bit of it, but I don’t want to do too much.

Q.  A double barrel one from me, Adam, one you won’t mind, one you probably won’t be too keen to talk about.  What would it mean to win a second Australian Open?  You feel like the sort of player who should have more than one Stonehaven Cup on their resume, and the second one, have you been following anything with the Saudi Arabia issue, the players going there?  Do you have any thoughts about that?  Have you ever been asked to play there and do you have any stance on that?

ADAM SCOTT:  Yeah, I wish I had more than one Australian Open and I was speaking to somebody the other day, and although I’ve played very well generally in the 10 years’ since winning the Australian Open – it was a pivotal point in my career.  I think it was really a huge moment.  I was 10 years into my career and I’d really struggled in ’09 with me game and I came back and won the Australian Open at the end of the year.  It just turned everything around and from there I played very well and obviously went on to become number 1 a few years after.  So, it’s a big moment for me that, and I’ve been close a couple of times in the last 10 years and obviously I bogeyed the last and Rory birdied the last, and that hurt a lot.  A few years ago here I lost by a shot to Matt Jones, I believe.  I can’t think of any other close calls.  But I’m a little surprised that I haven’t won another Australian Open in this 10 year stretch.  I managed to get a couple of Masters in that period and a PGA, but it would be nice to get my name on that cup again.  It’s a great trophy and any time you see your name kind of racking up on a trophy is something quite special.  So, this week would be the week to do it.

As far as the Saudi thing, I don’t think what’s going on.  Obviously, there was talk of it last year, but I don’t know what’s happened now.

Q.  You’re a proud Aussie and big ambassador for Australian golf.  How difficult was it for you to miss the last couple of Australian Opens?

ADAM SCOTT:  It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, however at certain points there’s a time where, I think last year I just had to take a break.  I’d pushed myself pretty hard to get my game back in shape and it had been a grind.  I saw no other way to take a break and get ready for the big stuff and try and put myself back in.  I have certainly felt like I’ve prioritised playing as much as I can back in Australia, certainly through the period where I was a Major Champion or number 1 in the world and I just had to take a break last year.  It was important for me and it’s disappointing to miss, of course, because I’m not going to win it not playing it, but I knew I’d come back and play in an Australian Open, it was just the timing.  When you have a long career, priorities change at different points.  I try and juggle and balance so many more things today than I did even five years ago, so a lot’s changed for me.  I feel like I give a lot of my energies away and my family misses out a lot on that, so sometimes I have to do that.

But hopefully, the better I play, the easier it is for me to prioritise playing in Australia.  So, that’s my goal moving forward – stay on top of my game and not have the battles of trying to get your world ranking in the right place and playing extra events and all that kind of stuff that I had to deal with in ’17 and ’18 really.

Q.  President’s Cup, there’s a great quote you saying you’d love to stick it to Tiger.  What do you make of him as a competitor and what kind of challenge would that be?

ADAM SCOTT:  He’s the ultimate competitor.  There’s no way he’s not doing everything possible coming down here as a captain and a player to win this event.  There’s no way he wants to be the captain to a losing US team.  So, it’s going to be very, very difficult but we have to believe we can beat him, because I believe we can win next week.  So, it would be great to stick it to Tiger and the entire American team.  I’m expecting it to be an incredible week next week.  Part of this week is kind of preparing myself mentally and physically for what’s coming next week.  It’s a tall ask to beat any American team, they’re very strong.

Q.  How would you rate your domestic career and how fulfilled or unfulfilled is it and how much more do you want to achieve in Australia?

ADAM SCOTT:  It’s an interesting question.  I’ve won all the events that are here, so in a sense I’m happy with that.  The greedy side of me wants to win them all every time, which doesn’t just happen, but to have won the Australian Masters and the PGA and the Open is fulfilling, I guess, seeing there’s only really two major events that have always been part of Australian golf left.  It’s not easy to just rack up wins when there are two.