Longest Open Streak

Adam Scott is becoming as closely associated with The Open as the rugged coastlines and the unpredictable weather.

The 45-year-old is in line to make his 26th consecutive appearance in golf’s original championship this summer after qualifying via the Australian Open late last year.

It is the longest streak of any active golfer.

Scott made his Open bow in 2000, four days after his 20th birthday – and just weeks after turning professional – and he hasn’t missed a Championship since.

He has equalled a course record, finished in the top 10 six times and suffered one heartbreaking finale.

The popular Australian will tee it up at Royal Birkdale in July with only one thing on his mind: finally getting his hands on the Claret Jug.

“A quick learning curve”

Born and raised in Adelaide, Scott has always spoken of his deep affinity with The Open.

His father Phil, who was a club professional and course designer, was first introduced to golf while visiting relatives in Wales as a teenager. Adam inherited his dad’s passion for golf and Phil went on to coach his son before passing the reins to Butch Harman in the late 1990s, just as everything was beginning to click.

Scott won a number of amateur events and was soon a member of the Australia national team. He joined the paid ranks midway through 2000, just before his first taste of The Open, which that year was staged at the home of golf.

He had made it through Regional and Final Qualifying, at Renfrew and Leven Links respectively, but almost immediately found out the hard way just how intimidating the Old Course can be, hitting his second shot straight into the Swilcan Burn.

“It was a quick learning curve for me at The Open and links golf,” he said, upon reflection in 2017.

Three missed cuts in Scott’s first four appearances was evidence that nature’s truest test was still proving beyond him.

However, he made the cut on his return to St Andrews in 2005 as four rounds in the 70s allowed him to finish 34th. And he enjoyed his first top 10 – tied-eighth at Royal Liverpool – 12 months later.

“It took me a while … to figure out I needed to do something different in preparation for The Open,” he said. “Just showing up on a Monday wasn’t enough. When I did figure that out, I started having some really good results and got close to winning.”

Anguish at Lytham

He couldn’t have been much closer to winning than he was in 2012. Four ahead with four to play – and yet no Claret Jug come the 72nd hole.

Scott’s struggles at Royal Lytham & St Annes have been well documented. Holding a four-stroke lead over Graeme McDowell and Brandt Snedeker going into the final day – helped by tying Tom Lehman’s course record (64) in round one – he birdied the 14th hole on Sunday to once again lead by four.

Disaster then struck as Scott bogeyed all four of his remaining holes. A fast-finishing Ernie Els came home in 32 to hold the clubhouse lead and ultimately win The Open by one shot.

“There are specific times in tournaments when you really need to up your intensity and up your focus,” said Scott. "It might just be that one shot, or two shots, that are so crucial and I think I played those last four holes a little too casually.

"It was too comfortable, four-shot lead, of course it's lovely, but as you can see, it can evaporate.”

Finding consistency on the links

Scott was asked about 2012 ahead of The 150th Open at St Andrews ten years later. He said that it hurt in 2022 more than it did at the time.

"There is no tournament I want to win more,” he said. "I think [The Open] is the pinnacle of the game.”

His near-miss at Royal Lytham & St Annes had the potential to derail a hugely promising career so Scott deserves enormous credit for how he dealt with his agonising runner-up finish, first using it as fuel for his historic Masters win just nine months later, becoming the first Australian to don the Green Jacket.

He then returned to The Open with added vigour, finishing T3 at Muirfield in 2013. It was one of three top-five finishes in majors that year, a run which helped catapult him to number one in the world rankings by May 2014.

He then reaffirmed his affection for Royal Liverpool with a T5 finish in 2014 before posting a fourth straight top-10 finish in The Open, at St Andrews 12 months later, when he was tied for the lead with just six holes remaining.

Although he has been unable to maintain that level of consistency, Scott is the only ever-present at The Open since the turn of the century.

He added another top-10 to his collection at Royal Troon in 2024 before a missed cut at Royal Portrush last year.

Scott – a 14-time PGA TOUR winner who is striking the ball as well as ever – finished 16th (2008) and T22 (2017) on his two previous visits to Royal Birkdale, so few would bet against him being in the mix in Southport in July.