Adam Scott's career is on the rise again as he goes into his defence of the Qatar Masters this week - and more and more people are wondering how much American actress Kate Hudson has to do with that.
A closing 64 gave the 28-year-old Australian a share of second place at the Sony Open in Hawaii, following which he set off on a "killer" journey to the Middle East which involved stops in San Francisco and Dubai.
Scott's best performance since he won the Byron Nelson Championship in Texas last April came after he and Golden Globe winner Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, were photographed together on a beach on the island of Maui.
"I'm not here with her, but I know Kate," he said.
Six wins both in Europe and America have not yet led to any major success for the world number 14, but he said going into this season: "Something got me inspired to just work a little bit harder again."
Asked to elaborate Scott replied: "I'm going to keep that to myself, actually, for the moment."
But he did say: "I think I've done well, but I think I could have achieved more. Last year was a frustrating year for me - it was the first time in my career that I had really struggled and it wasn't even really struggling on the course.
"It was more just a bit of a struggle with everything else going on. Injury, illness, some personal stuff."
The illness was recurring tonsilitis and the "stuff" was that he broke up with his long-time girlfriend.
"It was probably the first time there was a bump in the road for me. My career had just cruised along nicely.
"It was good to learn a lot and a few things have certainly motivated me a hell of a lot more in the last couple of weeks."
Scott won in Qatar with a phenomenal course record 61 in the final round 12 months ago - his second victory in two trips to the event.
That took him to fourth in the world, but after the victory in the States the second half of the season was a big disappointment and the year ended with him out of action after he dislocated his right kneecap running out of the water while surfing.
It was the sixth time he had suffered the problem.
"I just have really hyper-mobile kneecaps and obviously I have to be quite careful.
"The first time was in high school playing basketball and the problem is that there are six different surgeries they can do and a different doctor will recommend a different one. There's no foolproof fix for it.
"As long as it doesn't affect me playing golf I can get by. I don't really want to go in and have surgery and, like, change my leg if that could possibly change the way I play golf.
"So I'll try and last as long as I can without going under the knife. I haven't had a problem with surfing and that's something I love to do, but maybe I'll have to cut out things like skiing and tennis and anything that involves me running around."
After this week he is taking a month off in the hope that his knee will then be back to 100% for the countdown to the Masters in April.
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