Scott withdraws from Australian Open
BY iseekgolf.com | Australasian PGA Tour | 2008 Australian Open | General | 10 Dec 2008
Adam Scott has been forced to withdraw from this week’s Australian Open after a knee injury suffered last week has failed to fully recover.
Scott withdrew from last week’s Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship at Coolum after dislocating his right-knee when running out of the surf in Queensland.
The World No.16 was set to tee off with US PGA Tour regular Stuart Appleby and defending champion Craig Parry in the marquee afternoon group on Thursday.
First alternate – 22-year-old amateur Brett Rankin – will take his fellow Queenslander’s place alongside the former Australian Open champions.
“I just didn’t get enough time to recover from dislocating my knee cap on Sunday a week ago,” Scott told a large media contingent via telephone this morning.
“There’s still some swelling and I can’t actually walk properly at the moment and I still can’t extend my leg fully – it’s not really the hitting that’s the problem it’s the walking.”
A bitterly disappointed Scott said while his troublesome knee is not causing him any pain, he is reluctant to prolong the problem following a horror run of injury and illness in the latter half of the season.
“I’m disappointed and I feel I’ve let a lot of people down but I certainly wasn’t planning on any of this,” Scott said.
“Leading up to Coolum I worked quite hard on my game and made a few changes and I was really feeling quite good about my golf and I thought I could have a good run here in the Aussie events.”
“So that was disappointing because for the first time in a while I’d seen some big improvement and good feeling in my golf game and I didn’t even get to take that out on the golf course in the end.”
The 28-year-old informed tournament organisers of his decision to withdraw earlier today.
“I truly believed when it happened that I’d be able to play this week,” he said.
“In the past, I remember from when I’ve done it before, I played the following week once in Europe and the last time it happened I played two weeks later and it was really in good shape after two weeks.”
“Maybe I’m not that young anymore and the body’s not healing that quickly.”
Fresh from an excellent year on the US Tour and a last start win in the Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship, World No.11 Geoff Ogilvy remains the favourite to win the coveted Stonehaven Cup.
The 2008 Australian Open begins tomorrow at Royal Sydney Golf Club at Rose Bay.
Source – PGA Tour
