LAS VEGAS – Fortunes can turn quickly in Las Vegas.
Sometimes to the good, more often to the bad.
For Adam Scott, it was to the better.
The 2013 Masters champion was moseying around The Summit Club during Friday’s second round of the CJ Cup, heading to the 12th tee after consecutive bogeys and seeing he was 13 shots behind leader Keith Mitchell.
Then the man from Down Under started to go way under par.
Over his last seven holes, Scott made four birdies and two eagles to suddenly jump up the scoreboard into a tie for second place. Scott finished with a 9-under 63 to move to 13 under, five shots behind leader Keith Mitchell.
Scott was sterling as he made birdies from 2 feet on 12, 5 feet on 13, 4 feet on 15 and nine feet on 17. His eagle on the par-5 14th came from three feet, his eagle on the par-5 18th from five. His lone non-circle hole came on the par-3 16th where he got up-and-down from a greenside bunker for par.
Scott is trying to win his 15th PGA Tour title and first since the 2020 Genesis Invitational.
“You can’t expect a finish like that, but I’m going to take it,” Scott said. “I hit a lot of shots close and that made light work with the putter. Put myself in contention. I mean, I’m a long way back still, but 36 holes to go, I like where I’m at, moving in the right direction. I’d love to have a nice solid day tomorrow.
“Hopefully that wasn’t all the wind in my sail.”
Scott started sailing after making bogeys at 10 and 11 and falling well behind.
“Felt like I was playing in another tournament,” he said. “I needed to get something going.”
He got it going, indeed.
“I needed to just play aggressive and I went driver off the tee at 14, which is maybe unusual to say for a par‑5, but a lot of guys are not hitting driver. I just thought, well, if I want to have a chance at this tournament, I’ve got to probably hit one up there,” he said. “Hit an iron on the green close and make an eagle and that’s what I did. I hit a 6‑iron in and it rolled down to a couple of feet.
“Then on 18 I hit a poor drive actually, hung it out to the right in a bunker, but I had a good yardage and I had a good lie and I hit a 5‑iron, got it online and finished about five feet from the hole.
“I can handle those eagle putts.”
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