After a late decision to wheel it out in tournament play for the first time in more than two years, Scott was happy enough with the results during the opening round of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Pines.

He closed with a pair of birdies to be at one-under for the day, needing a respectable 30 putts to negotiate the soggy course during a stop-start round that was punctuated by torrential rain early in the day.

The Queenslander abandoned the long stick two months before the rule change in January 2015 that outlawed the ability to anchor it to the body. He had a brief flirtation with it in 2016 but has now signalled he will give it an extended test on tour.

Players must hold the top of the club away from their chest and chin, something Scott says he now feels more comfortable with as he tries to improve his work on the greens in an effort to climb back up the world rankings.

The 37-year-old took time off in the second half of the year for the birth of baby Byron with his wife Marie Kojzar and has slipped to 31, with Jason Day at 12 now the highest-ranked Australian.

Yeah, it was good actually, really good," Scott said on Thursday. "I had a couple putts that I would have liked to make from 15 feet or so that just slipped by, but other than that it was really solid.

"So if I can get those couple extra to go tomorrow, there's a good score out there."

Scott's playing partner Sergio Garcia was a keen observer, only finding out about Scott's change when he ran into him on the practice greens. He said he looked confident above the ball and was meticulous in ensuring he stuck to the new rules governing the use of the longer blade.

"Obviously we talked about it and he's very cautious to make sure that he's holding it the way you should hold it, make sure he doesn't anchor it at any time," Garcia said.

"And I looked at him throughout the whole day and you could see that he was making sure that he had it away from his chest, which is nice to see. But we know Scotty is a great gentleman, he's never going to do anything that shouldn't be done.

"But I thought he rolled it quite well to be totally honest. He probably could have holed probably two or three more putts that looked like they might go in and just kind of lipped out or burned the edge.

But at the end of the day the most important thing is how he feels. It seemed like he felt fairly good, so I'm sure that brings him a little bit of confidence."

Even though the putter remains legal, its use doesn't sit well with everyone on tour. But Scott has long been a defender of the broomstick and will be hoping it brings him some stability on the greens as he eyes off another major tournament.