Adam Scott is drawing on the memories of one his sweetest triumphs as the veteran bids to complete an improbable career double at the prestigious Players Championship.
Twenty years after becoming the youngest player to win the PGA Tour's flagship event, Scott has returned to TPC Sawgrass in Florida hoping to become the second-oldest champion of golf's unofficial fifth major at age 43.
Australia's former world No.1 and only-ever Masters champion was just 23 when he announced his arrival on golf's grand stages with a thrilling, nerve-defying victory in 2004.
He overcame the sinking feeling of dumping his second shot in the water on the treacherous 18th hole to get up and down with his second ball for a scrambling par to secure a one-shot win over Padraig Harrington.
The heady, career-changing win marked Scott's second of now-14 PGA Tour victories.
"To me, it's an event like the majors, that it is revered around the world," Scott posted on the PGA Tour website.
"Winning The Players was a huge deal at that point in my career. 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."
Scott, like countryman Jason Day, is striving to join legends Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, fellow Australian Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton and David Love III as only the sixth man to win the Players Championship multiple times.
"Certainly when you're talking about the greats of the game and major champions, you want the Players Championship to complement all those other great wins," he said.
After starting the year with three straight top-20 finishes, Scott missed the cut at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational.
But he hopes playing the milestone 50th Players Championship will bring out his best golf as he chases a first victory in more than four years.
"TPC Sawgrass is such a fantastic venue and I think it's wide open to everyone who competes that week and it really comes down to the best player winning most of the time," Scott said.
"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."
After regaining his place in the top 20 after slipping to 175th in late 2022, Day also returns to the $US25 million ($A38 million) showpiece with good vibes after scoring an equally impressive wire-to-wire victory in 2016.
The former world No.1 opened with a course-record 63 and broke Greg Norman's 36-hole low tournament mark before romping to a four-stroke win.
At the time, Day's seventh success from 17 tournaments marked the most dominant run since Woods in his pomp.
Fellow Australians Min Woo Lee, Cam Davis and Aaron Baddeley are also in this week's 156-man field.
Lee and Davis tied for sixth last year behind world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, while Baddeley is back at The Players for the first time since 2019.
But 2022 champion and nearby Jacksonsville, Florida resident Cameron Smith is again missing.
Smith, a fishing buddy of TPC Sawgrass's course superintendent, was unable to defend his title last year following his defection to LIV Golf, and also had his car park privileges removed.
Despite a thawing of relations between LIV Golf and PGA Tour players, Smith remains ineligible to compete at The Players.
His pain is Baddeley's gain.
The 42-year-old earned his spot courtesy of a top-125 finish in the 2023-24 FedExCup points standings after the exodus of stars from the PGA Tour to join the Saudi-backed breakaway league.
