The painful memories of having the Stonehaven Cup slip from his fingers are driving Adam Scott's quest for an elusive second Australian Open crown.
It is more than a decade since Scott's 2013 dramatic near miss at Royal Sydney, when a last-hole blunder and some Rory McIlroy magic conspired to deny Australia's one and still only Masters champion from completing one of the great years in golf history.
And the scars still sting.
Seven months after donning the famous green jacket following an epic play-off triumph over Angel Cabrera at Augusta National, Scott was more than on track to pull off Australian golf's fabled summer triple crown.
The soon-to-be world No.1 had won the Australian PGA and Australian Masters events before, incredibly, opening with six successive birdies and finishing with four straight more to card a spectacular course-record 10-under-par 62.
Three days later and Scott - at the peak of his powers - took a four-stroke lead over McIlroy into the final round.
Alas, as fate would have it, Scott bogeyed the last hole on championship Sunday while his Northern Ireland playing partner McIlroy made birdie to snatch the trophy.
"That was not the greatest memory for me and it all just slipped away so quickly on that final hole," Scott said on the eve of this year's Open at Royal Melbourne.
"But when you're on these great courses and playing under pressure, the smallest of errors can happen like that.
"And I put myself in a spot that was a little tricky to get up and down and all of a sudden the momentum was with Rory on the green and he holed the putt and won."
Scott and McIlroy will rekindle their Australian Open rivalry on another of the country's great courses when the 2025 edition gets under way on Thursday.
Fittingly, the superstar duo will play the first two rounds together, along with Min Woo Lee.
"No matter what happens, we're going to have a great event. There are so many great players playing this week on an iconic venue," Scott said.
"Some fantastic memory is going to be created no matter what.
"Given the level of play these days, you're still going to have to make a lot of birdies.
"But you're just going to have to play some good golf and limit the mistakes. The easiest thing to do is shoot yourself out of tournaments at golf courses like this and hopefully that's where my experience can kind of kick in and keep me in it.
"And then when you're coming down the stretch, you have to take your chances when you can get them.
"For me, at this point, if I can get myself to that position coming down the stretch, I have nothing to lose."
Now 45, Scott won his, to date, only Australian Open back in 2009 at the NSW Golf Club in Sydney.
The veteran yearns for another.
"Look, I think winning the Aussie Open at Royal Melbourne has one of those asterisks next to it where it's just that little bit more meaningful," he said.
"It's nothing against anywhere else but just the fact we haven't played a national open here since 1991 is going to make this a really special one.
"For every Aussie golfer, for anyone who's here, if they were to win, it's kind of a feather in the cap. Something to be incredibly proud of."
