AUGUSTA, United States (AFP) - Adam Scott has yet to decide if kangaroo will be on this year's Masters Champions Dinner menu but he has high hopes Australian golfers keep things hopping at Augusta National.
The 33-year-old broke the Australia curse last year, sinking a 12-foot birdie putt on the second play-off hole to become the first Aussie to win the green jacket symbolic of Masters supremacy, capturing his first major title.
"Hopefully every Aussie that's there will appreciate not being asked whether it will be them this year," Scott said on Tuesday in a conference call ahead of the April tournament, the annual first major of the golfing season.
"Hopefully the shackles are off and we're going to have a host of Aussies up there in the champions locker room and serving dinners in the future."
Scott, who has spent six weeks resting in the Bahamas ahead of his return to the United States PGA Tour next week in Florida, will be making his 13th appearance at Augusta after his best-ever season.
And in time honored tradition he will host his fellow Masters winners at a dinner before this year's championship begins.
"I'd like to serve something that everyone will really enjoy and nothing too crazy so that they won't," Scott said.
"But probably no surprise to anyone, there's definitely going to be an Australian theme toward every part. Whether that means they are eating kangaroo, I'm not sure yet, but we'll see."
TIGER REMAINS A MAJOR THREAT
Scott, currently number two in the world, also spoke of a growing feeling in the game that top level golf is no longer defined by Tiger Woods, with more depth in the game meaning a greater number of major winners is likely.
But he dismissed the notion that Woods, 38, has become less of a factor at majors despite the 14-time winner not winning one of the top four events since the 2008 US Open.
"I don't necessarily think it's that Tiger is not a factor. He certainly is a factor. He's the number one player in the world and he's always there or thereabouts. He's on a dry spell at the moment and that's what happens in a career.
"Jack Nicklaus had a run like that and he's still the greatest player of all time. It wouldn't surprise me that Tiger comes and wins again this year, but there's my generation of player is feeling like their time is now, so they have got to take advantage of it."
Woods, whose most dominating era was more than a decade ago, continues to chase the all-time major win record of 18 set by Nicklaus, but faces a new generation of major champions such as England's Justin Rose, the reigning US Open champion, and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, already a two-time major winner, aged 24.
"The way it has been shared around a little bit lately - you've seen my generation of player and the Justin Roses who have got to that level where they have put 10 or 12 years experience in the bank - they have raised the level of their own game over the last couple years and believe it's their time to do it," Scott said.
"They are not worried about Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or a young guy like Rory McIlroy. They are just into their own thing."
Back on the course, Scott said he would not mind Augusta National leaving bare the spot at the 17th fairway where the Eisenhower Tree stood until the famed century-old pine was removed last weekend, a victim of an ice storm.
"It will be part of Augusta history forever. Whether they replace it or not, it was a pretty tight hole, so from a golfing standpoint, I kind of think seeing a little bit more of the fairway will be a nice thing," he said.
