Masters champ Scott wins Don Award
Adam Scott has been further honored for smashing Australia’s biggest sporting hoodoo by becoming the first golfer to claim The Don award.
Scott ended 77 years of green and gold heartache at Augusta in April with his thrilling playoff win at the Masters.
The 33-year-old had to do it the hard way, making birdies on the final hole of regulation and the second playoff hole to hold off the challenge of Argentina’s Angel Cabrera.
The performance was unanimously voted by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF) selection committee as the 2013 winner of The Don award, which celebrates the athlete whose achievements have most inspired the nation in the preceding 12 months.
“I am humbled and honoured to have won this award and join many great champions before me,” Scott said via videolink at the SAHOF function at Crown Palladium.
“I’d like to congratulate the other finalists on their achievements this year and I’d like to thank the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for this honor.”
Scott was unable to attend the function as he is playing in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda this week.
But he will return home next month as the headline act at the Australian Open, Australian Masters, Australian PGA and the World Cup at Royal Melbourne.
Scott’s victory at Augusta made him the 10th Australian to win a men’s major and the first in seven years.
Australians had finished as the runner-up at Augusta on eight previous occasions, including Scott’s tie for second two years ago.
He had also blown a four-shot lead with four holes to play at the 2012 British Open, making his first major win all the sweeter.
Scott now sits a career-high second on the world rankings behind resurgent American Tiger Woods.
The other finalists for The Don award were rowing world champion Kim Crow, Test cricket captain Michael Clarke, wheelchair track and field athlete Kurt Fearnley, swimmer Cate Campbell, canoe world champion Jessica Fox and Casey Stoner, who ended a glittering MotoGP career last year.
Sally Pearson won the The Don award last year in recognition of her victory in the 100m hurdles at the London Olympics.