Las Vegas, Nevada (November 16, 2010)–Adam Scott is a former UNLV Rebel golfer who once lived in Las Vegas, and for many years trained with Las Vegas Golf Region resident Butch Harmon. Scott hasn't lived in Las Vegas for many years, but he will always have strong ties to Las Vegas golf courses. And this past weekend he collected his third title at the Barclays Singapore Open, a prestigious tournament on the European Tour. Scott, who hails from Australia, was the third-ranked golfer in the world in 2008, but then struggled for a time before getting his game back together over the last year. —By Brian Hurlburt.
"It's a new experience for me as it's the first time I've won three times," Scott told the media in Singapore following his victory. "I'm very proud to win the National Open and these are the kind of events that you dream of winning when you're growing up as a kid. I haven't been putting my best lately and the demons started creeping in a little bit on the back nine. But fortunately I squashed them and made a good putt on 15. That gave me a little buffer and calmed me down for the last three." Scott is the first to win the tournament three times (he also won in 2005 and 2006) and ended up three strokes in front of Anders Hansen. Scott ended at 17-under par.
Scott is just one of several golfers on the PGA Tour who has strong ties to Las Vegas golf courses and Las Vegas, in general. Scott played for a brief time at UNLV in the late nineties, and was a freshman on the team that was the defending NCAA champion. Other pros with strong ties to the Las Vegas Golf Region, and who were former Rebels, are Charley Hoffman, Bill Lunde, Ryan Moore, Chris Riley, Chad Campbell and Skip Kendall. In addition to being a hotbed for college golf, Las Vegas is also known for its quality golf courses. Two of those terrific Las Vegas golf courses are the two Tom Fazio layouts located at Primm Valley Golf Club, located about 30 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. The Lakes and Desert golf courses are known for their quality and value. Click now to view the official website of these Las Vegas golf courses where you can reserve your tee times in Las Vegas and/or Las Vegas golf packages for the surrounding hotels or MGM Mirage Las Vegas hotels.
Scott finished 19th in the FedEx Cup rankings in 2010, after he ended way down at 110th in 2009. During that time period Scott dealt with various injuries and a split with Harmon, Scott won the 2010 Valero Texas Open on the PGA Tour, his first win on the big tour since 2008, when he won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, an event also played in Teaxas. Scott did win the Australian Masters in 2009. Scott still credits UNLV Head Coach as being part of the reason for his success on the international golf stage, where he has won a total of seven PGA Tour events with 10 international wins. Knight is known as a short game guru, and still works with several former players including Campbell, Riley, Lunde and Hoffman. Over the years Riley has become known as one of the best putters on the PGA Tour.