Adam Scott debuts at Shriners Open with current UNLV golfer

Former UNLV golfer Adam Scott, 39, and current Rebels junior Jack Trent, 20, each made their Shriners Hospitals for Children Open debuts Thursday. But a lunch prior to a Tuesday practice round they played together was the first time the two Australians with similar histories had met.

Scott, Trent’s idol growing up, shot 5-under 66 in the opening round while his protégé shot 4-under 67.

During the practice round to get the week underway, it was a mutual admiration society between Scott and Trent.

“He’s a big, strong kid, like every kid who comes on tour seems to be,” Scott said. “He hits it a long way. As soon as you get a really good understanding of your own game like that, you can really compete at the tour level quite quickly, as we’ve seen with some the kids out of college last year.”

The experience was surreal for Trent, but it quickly morphed into just another round with a good mate.

“He was really chill and it felt like I had already known him for my whole life,” Trent said. “He’s just a regular guy. Even though the week hadn’t really even started yet, it was already incredible.”

For Scott on Thursday it was a matter of keeping the faith.

“I’m playing good, but I just don’t have a lot of feeling at the moment,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. I’m just kind of trusting that it is good.”

Scott said Brad Malone, his swing coach, tells him “it looks all good and everything, but I just don’t have a lot of really good feelings like I know exactly what I’m going to do on every shot. I’m just trusting it and hoping over the next couple days that kind of feeling comes in. I don’t know why, but it was like that last week, too.”

Scott shared the lead after the first round in last week’s Safeway Open but faded to finished tied for 17th.

Scott sees a lot of himself in Trent and says he now has a deeper appreciation and understanding for his time at UNLV, which only lasted a little more than a year.

“Looking back on it, UNLV was one of the biggest learning curves in my entire life,” said Scott, who was 18 at the time. “It sounds funny, but I was a child when I came here.”

He says what he learned most was “that you just don’t get things your own way all the time. Things get tough; you’ve got to get tough. Not in a nasty way at all, but (coach Dwaine Knight) was kind of in charge of (a lot) of kids, and he had to be a bit tough. As a parent now on a different level, I know looking after two kids you’ve got to be tough, but he had more than that to control.”

Even though Scott said he and Knight might not have always seen eye-to-eye, “I think it toughened me up a bit being here. So that was a great kind of lesson for me to carry forward.”

Freelance writer Brian Hurlburt can be reached at bhurlburt5@gmail.com or @LVGolfInsider.