Now that Tiger Woods has officially withdrawn from the Masters, Adam Scott has an even better chance to reach the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings, and quite soon.

After Scott’s Players Championship victory in 2004, it didn’t seem like it would take 10 more years for the young studly Aussie to make it to the No. 1 spot, even though his emergence did come at the heart of the Tiger Woods Era. The golfing world probably expected Scott to have the immense success that we are currently seeing from the 33 year old about five or so years earlier.

After his breakthrough victory at the 2013 Masters — the second major that Scott participated in after his debacle at the 2012 British Open Championship — Greg Norman, Australian golfing celebrity and former No. 1 player in the world, was a name that was mentioned often throughout Scott’s post-Green Jacket analysis. Scott, as well as many others in the game, referenced The Shark, patriarch to Australian golfing, as “a mentor” to Australia before winning Australia’s first green jacket.

But is that a good thing?

If I were given the option of writing this article (which I am sincerely having a lot of fun doing by the way) or pursuing a golfing career half as good as Norman’s, I would definitely love the opportunity to take the latter. However, when people think of Greg Norman, their first impressions are of a guy who didn’t leave it all out there. I know that criticizing the career of a former No. 1 player in the world, a man who won two majors and has 89 worldwide wins to his name is a little “nit-picky,” but that’s his legacy.

I draw parallels between Scott and Norman at this specific time for one particular reason, which has everything to do with Tiger’s hiatus from the game. But first, it’s also interesting to note how similar the careers and personalities of the mentor and protégé relationship of Norman and Scott are. Both are iconic national celebrities from their homeland of Australia. And if Scott finds success in his next few events, that is if Rory, Phil, or Jason Day don’t go on some sort of tear, Scott and Norman will have both reached the No. 1 spot in the OWGR. Both are tall, handsome, physically fit and extremely charismatic individuals who have built immense financial success off the golf course due to such characteristics.

The comparison between Scott, with regards to the above point, and Norman is that there wasn’t a polarizing and dominant figure like Tiger present in the game during Norman’s career. One could argue that Nick Faldo’s six major championships in the 80s and 90s was some stiff competition, but it’s not the same.

In a handful of majors, Norman was on the wrong end of some unfortunate scenarios, which, had they gone the other way, might have us talking about Norman in the same light as a Lee Trevino, or maybe even Tom Watson. In 1996, Norman shot a final-round 78 at the Masters where he began the day with a six-shot lead. Ten years earlier, he had the lead going into Sunday in all four Majors and only came out with one win. In 1983, after holing a putt to force an 18-hole Monday playoff at the U.S. Open, Norman shot a final-round 75 to lose to eventual champ Fuzzy Zoeller.

Most famously at the 1987 Masters, Norman’s playoff opponent, Larry Mize, pulled off one of the most famous shots in Masters history, holing his third shot on No. 11 from 45 yards to grab the green jacket.

While two major championship victories and becoming the first player in golf to earn $10 million is nothing to criticize, it is hard to look past what could have been for Australia’s most decorated golfer (at least for now). In an article in Golf World Magazine about how, outside of Woods, Norman is the golfer who has performed at the highest level during the past 34 years, Jamie Diaz discussed the very well document disappointments in Norman’s career.

“Between his failures down the stretch in majors and the backlash from his highly marketed Great White Shark image, it has been common in recent years to hear Norman characterized as overrated.” Diaz also went on to say that “The Shark’s cross to bear will always be his inefficiency at closing out majors.”

With the state of Tiger Woods 3.0 being up in the air, there is an opportunity here for Scott to fully break away from some demon’s in his career, ones that have haunted his fellow countryman and mentor.

It will be nearly two years this July when Adam Scott bogeyed his final four holes at the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. It was truly painful to watch par putt after par putt just miss the cup in what many anticipated to be Scott’s major breakthrough campaign. Although Scott did back that heartbreaking Open Championship loss with his best season yet as a pro in 2013, which was highlighted by two incredible putts to win the Green Jacket, we did see a glimpse of 2012 just a few weeks back at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Scott entered the weekend at Arnie’s event with a seven-shot lead, where he ended up losing by two shots to Matt Every after firing a 76 on Sunday. Had a just a few more putts dropped for Scott, he would have reached the No. 1 spot in the OWGR with a win.

So, now that Tiger hasn’t won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open, and considering that he will be missing the Masters and quite possibly more majors in 2014, a door has been opened. Not to become the next Tiger Woods, because that realistically might never happen, but for a player to take his career to the next level in Woods’ absence. While Rory McIlroy has been labeled as the next big thing after two majors victories at an earlier age than Tiger did, the steps backward he took in 2013 have left his status up in the air.

At this point in time, the person who should break through is Adam Scott. While he has showed some signs of “choke” in him, he can easily separate himself from the pact of the McIlroys, Jason Days and Justin Roses of golf, while eliminating the “negative” comparison’s he shares with his mentor.