More up than down as Adam Scott seeks redemption TEN years ago, Adam Scott walked off the final green at Oak Hill and saw he'd finished in a tie for 23rd at the US PGA Championship. It was just the seventh major of his career and, given he'd just come off missed cuts at the US and British Opens, not a bad result, except that he knew it should've been so much better. "Do you know how many times I got up-and-down this week?" he asked. He touched the tip of his forefinger to his thumb to make a little bagel. Hard to believe anyone could finish so highly at a major with a non-existent short game but that was then and now the year's final major is back at this venerable Donald Ross design. "Ten years is a long time and I've played a lot of golf and I feel like a completely different golfer," Scott said yesterday. I had forgotten that I was even in the mix. At 33, he's matured, both as a player and as a person, which has been reflected in the fact that the Queenslander has five top-10 finishes and a famous victory in his past 11 majors. He comes into this event as one of the favourites even though he's still smarting at the way the final day unfolded for him last month at Muirfield. Scott had held the lead by himself midway through that fateful Sunday, a claret jug -- and redemption for blowing the tournament the year before -- beckoning, but four consecutive bogeys took the wind out of his sails and he had to be content with a tie for third. "I think I was probably more disappointed at The Open this year than last," he said yesterday. I worked really hard to get myself in a position with nine holes to go in the space of about 45 minutes, to go from leading to not even having a chance on the 16th tee was disappointing, probably more so than at Lytham. The venue, a tree-lined classic with punitive rough, rewards ball-striking and that certainly suits Scott. "Oak Hill is right up there," he said. There's nothing fancy or tricky about it. It's just a good, genuine, fair test is a great way to describe it. The good shots will be rewarded and the bad shots will be fairly punished. It's going to be one of the best courses that we set foot on all year. Scott leads the Australian charge; eight trying to become the first since Steve Elkington in 1995 to win a US PGA. Standing in their way, though, are the usual suspects. Chiefly Tiger Woods, who turned back the clock at the weekend, blitzing a world-class field by seven shots at the Bridgestone Invitational, his fifth win in 10 strokeplay events this season. By any measure, those five wins should be enough to say that Woods is back. By any measure, that is, but his own. Since he pinned a poster of Jack Nicklaus to his bedroom wall as a boy, Woods has defined himself by majors. He's been stuck on 14 -- four short of the Nicklaus record -- for five years. He created a minor stir yesterday by appearing to downsize his long-time contention that in order for him to have a great year he needed to win a major. "This year, for me, I think it's been a great year so far for me, winning five times, and you look at the quality of tournaments I've won, a Players and two World Golf Championships in there, that's pretty good," Woods said. When he was asked if it would be a great year even without a major, he said it would, raising eyebrows. Woods has now gone 17 majors without a victory, by far the longest drought of his career. Many thought the toughest nuts to crack for him would be 18 to tie Nicklaus or 19 to pass him, but maybe in the wake of his deconstruction it's 15. "It kind of seems that way," Woods said. I've had my opportunities there on the back nine on probably half of those Sundays for the last five years, and just haven't won it. Or so he hopes. It was interesting to hear Steve Williams, Woods's estranged caddie, say after Muirfield that while he thought Woods had the game to win majors, what was missing was "his old aggressiveness." One player not short of aggressiveness is Phil Mickelson, who's on a high coming off a magnificent victory at the British Open, his fifth major. "The British Open really changed some of my perception of myself as a player," the Californian said. Had I won another green jacket, that would not have done the same thing as what winning the claret jug has done. I'm more motivated than ever to work hard to succeed, because I can taste some of my best golf coming out.