PGA Tour: Adam Scott Eyes World Number One Ranking At Doral

Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

When 2013 Masters Champion, Adam Scott tees it up at The WGC-Cadillac Championship this week he will have an opportunity to get to the pinnacle of the sport. If he wins at the newly designed Trump National Doral this week, and Tiger Woods finishes sixth, or worse, he would be the number one player in the world. The only other Aussie to attain this position was Greg Norman.

The 33 year-old Aussie started the climb to number one in the spring of 2012 with a third place finish at The AT&T then following it with a runner-up at the Open Championship. Of course he blew a four shot lead to finish in second place, but the big jump came at the Masters last year where he found redemption for the Open meltdown, and became the first Aussie in history to win a Green Jacket.

Not even the great Greg Norman, who spent a total of 331 weeks at the number one position was able to win at Augusta National. Norman is second all-time to the guy who has the spot right now, and held the spot four times from Nov 1987 thru April of 1997. Tiger Woods has held the position three times for a total of 673 week, and I assure you, he will not go quietly.

Adam Scotts victory at Augusta last year, and his win at The Barclay (when Tiger was again having problems with his back) were the two events that pushed him to the number two spot.

"“Absolutely it will (be motivation),” said Scott, who is 1 1/2 points behind Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings and will be paired with him for the first two rounds here. “It’s impossible not to think about it.”“It would be a dream come true to make it to that point, but it’s not necessarily probable, either. There’s no reason why I’m just going to roll out and win this week, but there’s great motivation for me to do that.”"

Tiger Woods has always had the right idea, that if he could just win tournaments, the ranking would take care of itself. With that said, the last time he lost the top spot was when he lost  to Rory McIlroy in the 2012 Honda Championship. Tiger fought hard, but dropped out of the top spot until June of 2013.

Adam Scott will be playing with the current, and former number one in the early rounds at The Blue Monster. Rory picked up some spots with his performance at PGA National last week, and is undoubtedly looking to get back to the top spot as well. He enjoyed the top spot from October 2012 until gave it back to Tiger in 2013 during a season from hell.

"“It’s great motivation,” McIlroy said of reaching No. 1. “I knew going into Honda that I had to win to get to No. 1 and that’s all that was on my mind. It gives you a single mindedness. Instead of falling into it, you know what you need to do.”"

Tiger Woods is questionable this week for The Cadillac Championship, but the word is that he will start the tournament on Thursday morning. Who knows how the back will react this soon after the problems on Sunday. But one thing is for sure, Tiger knows what is on the line, and if he can play, I’m sure he will be out there.

"“I have won, what, eight times in the last couple years to get back there, and that wasn’t an easy task, especially coming from outside the top 50,” Woods said. “A lot of (media) wrote me off, that I would never come back (smiling), but here I am.”"

One thing is for sure, with all the talent that is lurking around the top of the world rankings, it won’t be easy to get to the top, and it will be just a difficult to stay there. Jason Day is challenging, you have to know Henrik Stenson isn’t going to go quietly, and then there’s all the new guys that want a piece of the action.

If Adam Scott wants that number one ranking, he’s going to have to get the hard way, earn it on the golf course!

Source: PGATour.com

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