Adam Scott returned to Doral on Thursday and wound up with a costly mistake on the Blue Monster’s par-5 eighth hole, playing the wrong ball in the opening round before finding his original and finishing with a double-bogey 7.
The 45-year-old Australian, described as an honorary defending champion at the course where he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship 10 years ago, said afterward that it was “such a silly thing to do” and that it was the first time he had ever done it in his career. Under Rule 6.3, playing the wrong ball brings a two-shot penalty, and Scott had to return to the spot where he believed his drive had landed before completing the hole.
The mistake did not end his round, but it changed it. Scott made eight straight pars after the wrong-ball incident, then bogeyed the last two holes for a four-over 76 that left him 12 shots behind early leader Cameron Young. He said that taking two lumps there was tough, especially thinking later about how much better he would have been with two fewer strokes. “That’s probably one of those things everyone ends up doing once,” Scott said.
Doral had been off the PGA Tour schedule after 2016, when it last hosted a tour event before returning this year as a new Cadillac signature stop. Scott’s return to the Blue Monster was supposed to stir memories of his title there, but Thursday turned into a reminder that even experienced players can be caught by one small error. The bigger test now is whether he can recover enough over the next three rounds to turn a frustrating opening day into something that still matters.