Adam Scott found the one thing Augusta National rarely gives away in practice week: certainty. The 2013 Masters champion made a hole-in-one on the 11th hole during a preparatory round at Augusta, turning what he called an otherwise flat day into the clear highlight of his schedule.
"It was a fun moment on what was a pretty ordinary day to that point," Scott said. "So that's definitely the highlight of my day today."
The Australian described a ball flight that found the cup despite the conditions conspiring against him. Blustery wind and a pin tucked behind the gallery meant that the ball's final resting place was conveyed by sound rather than by sight.
"It was a little into the wind and the wind was tricky, for me anyway today," Scott said. "We ended up - I kind of back-footed an eight iron and it just drew in there perfect, and it was actually hard to see the flag mixed in with the people and the crowd, but we heard it go in."
A back-footed eight iron - essentially a lower-trajectory stock shot weighted behind the stance to keep the ball under the wind - is exactly the kind of controlled strike Augusta rewards, particularly in the back nine's exposed corners. Scott, now in his mid-40s and still competing at the top of the world game, described the shot without fanfare; the hole did the talking.
The conversation quickly pivoted from the ace to Gary Woodland, whose recent victory at the Houston Open came after a public disclosure of PTSD and brain-surgery recovery. Woodland had spoken openly about his mental health battle on television only a few weeks earlier, and Scott, who has known him on tour for years, used his moment at the microphone to champion his peer.
"I'm just so pleased for Gary playing so well," Scott said. "I really look up to him as a mate, you know, who put it out there just a couple of weeks ago on television and what he's dealing with. It is inspirational. Being on the course like you said and we're around him a lot in the physio room and the locker room..."
The aside is quietly telling. For all the tournament's competitive intensity, the locker room at a major is also where players track who is healthy, who is struggling and who needs a word. Scott, who has been around long enough to have seen peers arrive and depart in waves, has increasingly used his platform to credit others.
Augusta's 11th is not a hole that usually invites heroics. The par-four opens White Dogwood, the first of Amen Corner's three holes, and players generally play away from the left-side water rather than toward the pin. Scott's ace came on a short-yardage pin variation the club runs during practice sessions - a more forgiving flag than the Sunday tournament position.
The practice-round ace will not appear on Augusta's record books, which only recognise aces in tournament play. But for Scott, the combination of a rare hole-in-one and a small tribute to a friend made for a day to remember - and a reminder that Masters week at Augusta regularly produces its own unscripted theatre long before the first tee shot of Thursday.
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/adam-scott-aces-augustas-11th-in-masters-practice-salutes-gary-woodland-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
