PGA Tour player blog: It will be fantastic to win Players Championship 20 years on, says Adam Scott

The Players Championship is an event every player wants to win. Certainly when you’re talking about the greats of the game and Major champions, you want the championship to complement all those other great wins.

To get a Players win early in my career in 2004 was amazing. TPC Sawgrass is such a fantastic venue and it’s wide open to everyone who competes that week, and it really comes down to the best player winning most of the time.

It’s an event I have really fond memories of, and I’ve always enjoyed playing there. It would be fantastic to win it again 20 years on.

To me, it’s an event like the Majors that it is revered around the world.

Obviously, going back to TPC Sawgrass every year is helpful and the famous island green on the par-three 17th hole has become notorious in the game of golf and we’ve seen so much drama over the years.

For a 23-year-old kid to become the youngest winner back then, and to beat a great field on an incredible test of a golf course, was a big boost for my career.

Some things fall in your favour when you have these wins. Sometimes, it’s a bit of luck.

Playing with Ernie Els in the third round was a calming thing for me and I played quite well.

That gave me a lot of confidence going into Sunday, even though I wasn’t playing with him in the final round but, to be on a big stage and know my game can hold up, I took a lot out of that Saturday round.

I was feeling pretty good after making birdies on No. 11 and 12 and it was around the 14th hole when I saw Padraig Harrington had posted a number in the clubhouse and I was two strokes in front at that time.

All of a sudden, things became a bit more difficult.

Getting into the clubhouse in any big championship is tough and, after I bogeyed No. 14, the pressure started to build.

Anytime you’re leading a tournament, it’s very hard not to race ahead and think about winning, or think about what comes with that.

In the past, I’ve been incredibly nervous where your hands feel like they’re shaking. It was at the time to win the biggest tournament of my career and what an opportunity that is.

We went back to Stuart Appleby’s house in Orlando later that Sunday evening as I didn’t have a place back then in the United States.

There wasn’t any huge celebration, which is disappointing because young Adam definitely didn’t fear a celebration!

What was great was my girlfriend was there, who’s now my wife, my coach Butch Harmon was there and it’s one of those big moments in my career where I have special memories about winning that afternoon.

Maybe I have to make up for not celebrating 20 years ago and have an absolute blinder if I win again.