World No.4 Adam Scott is nothing if not thorough in his quest to win a major championship.
Adapting the old soldiers' maxim that time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted, Scott is at Royal Birkdale playing practice rounds for this year's British Open, which is still nine weeks away.
He is giving his preparation for the world's oldest major a head start over next month's US Open at Torrey Pines, California, because he has already played a tournament there this year and feels he knows the course well.
After his final-round meltdown in the Players Championship at Sawgrass last weekend -- he double-bogeyed three of the last five holes for an 80 -- Scott headed to the north-west coast of England to get himself familiar with Royal Birkdale, which is back on the Open roster after a gap of 10 years.
Birkdale has been voted the No.1 course in Britain and after playing his first round there yesterday, Scott likes what he sees.
"After only playing it once I think it's one of the better links courses I've seen," he said.
"It's a really enjoyable golf course to play. We had a bit of breeze, but it wasn't from the prevailing direction.
"I think I do quite well on links golf courses," he told reporters in a hookup from the course before teeing off for another practice round with his personal trainer Dave Darbyshire on the bag.
"I enjoy playing them and I think my chance is as good (here) as at any other links course.
"The course is in pretty good shape actually. The weather has been pretty nice over here, so there is a lot of grass.
"I'm sure it's a lot softer than they'd like it for the Open, but the fairways widths and rough is pretty close to the course set-up.
"It'll be well worthwhile, the trip up here."
Scott, who is taking a two-week break from the PGA Tour, made it clear that he is not compromising his preparation for the US Open.
"I played there earlier in the year, and I'll be a Torrey Pines the whole week before the Open, so I'm going to get plenty of practice there," he said.
For all his success, Scott still has two gaping holes in his resume -- winning a major and winning a tournament on home soil.
At 27, he says he's not in a panic about it, but he's clearly arranging his schedule to maximise his chances.
He will play in this year's Australian Open at Royal Sydney, having missed the tournament last year to be best man at a friend's wedding.
He'll also play the Australian PGA at Coolum.
But for now, his thoughts are mainly on the three remaining majors of the year.
He's been playing well -- with tournament victories in the Qatar Open and Byron Nelson Championship already this year -- but his old putting woes came back to haunt him at Sawgrass last week, especially from short range.
"My putting seems to have given me some trouble for the first time in a long time," he said.
"I need a little bit of work there before I tee it up again at Muirfield (Village) in a couple of weeks (for the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial Tournament).
"I've been playing really nicely. I had an ordinary week around the greens last week. I'll touch that up a little before Jack's tournament."
The PGA Tour's statistics underline where Scott has ground to make up.
He is No.1 in the all-around ranking, a combined measure of driving, putting, sand saves and the like.
He is also the best putter on tour from 10-15 feet and No.6 from 15-20 feet.
But inside five feet, he is ranked 191st -- almost last.
