DORAL, Fla. -- Adam Scott has a new caddie, a new putter and his wife just had a baby.
"Yeah, everything was getting boring so I thought, 'Just change everything completely,'" Scott joked Wednesday at Trump National Doral, where he is making his 2015 debut.
Each of the top 50-ranked players in the world are competing in this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship, with Scott the last of them to play this year.
Scott, 34, has a good reason. His wife, Marie, gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl named Bo, on Feb. 15 in Australia. He stayed at home for nine days before heading to North America to prepare for a run of at least three tournaments in a row, starting Thursday.
"The last few weeks at home, seeing a bit of the guys play, I've got that kind of itchy feeling to play," said Scott, who has not competed since tying for second at the Australian PGA Championship in early December. "But I was home for a good reason and everything is going well, so [it's a] good time to kick it off here."
And he'll be doing so with a new caddie and a new putter.
Scott and caddie Steve Williams -- who was on the bag for his 2013 Masters victory -- parted ways at the end of the year, with Scott going through several trials before settling on Mike Kerr, who has worked for the likes of Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez and most recently Thorbjorn Olesen.
The new putter is simply a switch to a short putter in advance of the Jan. 1, 2016, rules change that will no longer allow anchored strokes. Scott has used a long or broom putter for several years, and has anchored it to his chest.
"I've kind of enjoyed experimenting at home the last couple months because I've had so much time up my sleeve," he said. "Thinking a little more objectively about it at the back end of last year, I thought because I do have to make an adjustment by the end of this year, if I'm going to spend some time doing it, I should try and start now and maybe find the best solution.
"I've putted lots of different ways at home, and probably going to putt with a shorter putter this week. It's been feeling good. I've enjoyed doing it. It's not that big a deal. I did it for a long time, too, that way."
But Scott had become so frustrated with his putting that he went to the long putter for relief in February 2011. He finished runner-up to Els at the 2012 Open Championship, won the 2013 Masters and last year went to No. 1 in the world for a brief time, also winning the Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
He is now ranked No. 5 in the world, and is also playing next week's Valspar Championship followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"I'm kind of starting a little late," Scott said. "I've got to get playing and try and find that nice rhythm on the golf course. I think that's my goal the next three or four weeks out here. It is different than playing back home with your family or your mates. It's certainly much more demanding out here."