Scott leads Aussie charge once again at Masters

• By Jay Coffin
• Apr 2, 2012 6:47 PM ET

AUGUSTA, Ga. – An Australian will win the Masters one day, right?

Well it hasn’t happened yet and it’s sure to be mentioned each year until it does. For the closest call see Norman, Greg. But the 2011 playing was another one to add to the list with Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Jason Day all in contention with nine holes remaining.

“I think it makes the story a little juicier,” Scott said. “There’s another line you can put in your stories.”

Said Day: “This is, for me, the Holy Grail to win this tournament. I do believe that an Australian will win it soon. In Australian sports, we have conquered a lot of different sporting events around the world. This is probably one of the last few that we would like to get to.”

Any of the aforementioned three Aussies could contend again this year at Augusta National but much of the focus in on Scott. Ogilvy has already won a major championship and Day is in the early stages of a successful career with plenty of time to win. At 31, Scott is not old, but he has the talent to contend more in majors than he has over the past decade. If his career ended without a major championship it’d be considered a disappointment.

Last year’s second-place tie at the Masters shows Scott has plenty of game left.

“Last year here was the best I’ve ever putted at any tournament,” he said. “I three-putted the first green of the tournament, and I didn’t have a three-putt after that for the next 71 holes, which is a good effort around here considering how I had gone in the past.”

Preparation for this event was similar to last year. Scott has only played nine competitive rounds on the PGA Tour and hasn’t played an event since the WGC-Cadillac Championship three weeks ago. For him, he’s decided not to play tournaments for the sake of playing them, rather has learned to enjoy the art of practicing more than he has in previous years.

A less-is-more theory has done nothing to dampen his spirits.

“Every time I walk out on the course, I feel like I can have a good score no matter how I’m hitting it,” Scott said.