Adam Scott will officially make his 100th consecutive major championship start when he tees it up at Shinnecock Hills next month, joining Jack Nicklaus as the only players in history to reach the milestone. The 45-year-old Australian secured his place in the 2026 U.S. Open field on Monday after the USGA confirmed the next wave of exempt categories — a streak that began in the summer of 2001, when Scott was a 21-year-old rookie playing the Open Championship at Royal Lytham.
What Happened
The USGA released the latest tranche of exempt players for the 126th U.S. Open on May 18, 2026, with 35 additional golfers earning their spots at Shinnecock Hills (June 18–21). Among the names triggered by the OWGR top-60 cutoff, Scott — currently ranked No. 49 — locked in his entry on the strength of a tie for fourth at last month’s Cadillac Championship at Doral, the result that nudged him safely inside the qualifying bracket.
For Scott, the practical news is the same as it has been for nearly a quarter-century: he is in another major. The historical news is something different. With the U.S. Open in June, his consecutive major appearance count will officially click over to 100 — a figure no active player is anywhere near, and only one golfer in the modern era has ever surpassed.
A Streak That Began in 2001
Scott’s first major start came at the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, where he finished tied for 47th. He had turned professional the year before, and at the time was best known on the European Tour as a long-hitting prospect with a buttery swing modeled — by his own admission — on Tiger Woods. He has not missed a major since.
That run includes his 2013 Masters victory, when he beat Ángel Cabrera in a sudden-death playoff to become the first Australian ever to win the green jacket. It also includes years of near-misses, missed cuts, weather delays, swing changes, and three different putting eras — short putter, long putter, and the post-anchor era that forced him to overhaul his stroke entirely in 2016. Through all of it, he has shown up at every Masters, every U.S. Open, every Open Championship, and every PGA Championship.
Compared to the field, the gap is almost comical. Jordan Spieth, the next active player on the consecutive-majors list, sits at 49 — roughly half of Scott’s tally. Tiger Woods’ longest career streak was 46. Rory McIlroy’s is shorter. Phil Mickelson, who played 26 years on tour, never came close. The active leaderboard isn’t really a leaderboard at all — it’s Adam Scott, then everyone else.
Why It Matters: The Nicklaus Comparison
The only player ahead of Scott on the all-time list is Jack Nicklaus, who teed it up in 146 consecutive majors between the 1962 Masters and the 1998 U.S. Open. That run lasted 36 years and is widely considered one of the most untouchable records in golf — a record that requires not just elite play and durable health, but consistent qualification, calendar discipline, and a willingness to keep showing up well past the age when most players have shifted to the Champions Tour or stepped away entirely.
Scott reaching 100 doesn’t put Nicklaus’s mark in immediate danger — he would need to play 46 more majors in a row, which at four per year is more than a decade of perfect attendance starting at age 45. But it does cement his standing as the most reliable major-championship presence of his generation, and it puts him in a club of one for active golf.
It’s also worth noting how Scott has stayed exempt this long. Through the 2010s, he was a top-10 fixture and won often enough to qualify on results alone. Since 2020, he has leaned more on the OWGR top-60 exemption used by the USGA and on past-champion status at the Masters. The Cadillac T4 in early 2026 was a textbook example of how players in their mid-40s thread the needle — one good week of golf protects the entry list for months.
The 2026 U.S. Open Field Comes Together
Scott was one of 35 new names added to the Shinnecock field on Monday alongside 2026 PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai, three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, and a range of OWGR-bracketed players. Earlier in the week, Lucas Herbert booked his spot via a wire-to-wire LIV Virginia win, which triggered a separate exempt category for tournament winners.
Final qualifying — the two-round, 36-hole gauntlet that gives club pros and tour journeymen one shot at the field — kicked off May 18 at sites in England, Texas, Japan, and Canada, and continues through June 8, the day known on the golf calendar as Golf’s Longest Day. Many of the marquee names had already been confirmed via the OWGR, PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings, and past-champion exemptions captured in the earlier 2026 major qualifying cycles.
Shinnecock Hills, the William Flynn classic on Long Island, last hosted the U.S. Open in 2018, when Brooks Koepka won the second of his back-to-back titles in conditions that veered between brutal and unfair. The USGA has signaled a softer setup this time, but the course’s signature challenges — native fescue rough, exposed greens, and severe wind off the Atlantic — will reward exactly the qualities Scott has built a career on: tempo, ball-striking, and patience.
What This Means for You
For amateur golfers, the Adam Scott story is less about the 100 trophy he isn’t holding and more about how he got to 100 in the first place. Three takeaways stand out:
Build a swing that lasts. Scott’s golf action has been called one of the most copyable on tour, in large part because it doesn’t ask the body to do anything extreme. His tempo is famously slow; his transition is unhurried; his finish is balanced. He’s avoided the kind of mid-career back, hip, and wrist injuries that have shortened careers from Tiger Woods to Jason Day. If you’re 40-plus and still chasing distance through speed, Scott’s longevity is a strong argument for prioritizing mechanics, rotation, and conditioning over raw clubhead velocity.
Putting is solvable, even mid-career. Scott has effectively rebuilt his putting stroke three times. The anchored long putter ban in 2016 forced him into the most jarring transition, and although his putting numbers dipped for a couple of seasons, he eventually settled into a long-putter-without-anchoring setup that has held up. The lesson is simple: a poor putter at 35 doesn’t have to be a poor putter at 45. Scott’s experimentation with grip, length, and stroke mechanics has been a master class in adapting under rules-driven and age-driven constraints. If your putting has stalled, a deliberate equipment-and-technique audit can shift the numbers more than most golfers expect.
Show up, even when the form isn’t there. Scott’s streak is partly a story of elite play but mostly a story of qualification math. He kept his OWGR position high enough, year after year, to clear the exempt thresholds — often by margins of one or two world-ranking points. That meant playing through stretches when his swing wasn’t quite right, his back was tight, or his confidence was wobbling. For club golfers, the parallel is the league round you don’t feel like playing or the medal entry you almost skipped. Streaks are built on the unglamorous Tuesdays.
Key Takeaways
- Adam Scott will tee it up in his 100th consecutive major at the 2026 U.S. Open, June 18–21 at Shinnecock Hills.
- He becomes only the second player in history to reach the milestone, joining Jack Nicklaus (146 consecutive majors, 1962–1998).
- The streak began at the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham, when Scott was 21 and in his second year as a pro.
- Scott qualified via the OWGR top-60 exemption after a tie for fourth at the Cadillac Championship at Doral.
- The next-closest active streak belongs to Jordan Spieth at 49 — roughly half of Scott’s total.
The U.S. Open begins June 18 at Shinnecock Hills. If Scott’s recent form holds, he won’t be a betting favorite — but if there’s one thing his career has proven, it’s that he’ll be on the first tee.
