Australian golf star Adam Scott has revealed his incredible relationship with Tiger Woods in a warts-and-all confession ahead of the Genesis Invitational in LA.

It's not surprising given his first awe-struck encounter, but Adam Scott has revealed how tormenting from a scary good Tiger Woods set his professional golf career back years.

Like most, Scott has welcomed Woods' plans to hopefully one day return to the PGA Tour, even if the 15-times major winner admits his comeback from a career-threatening car accident is taking longer than he'd like.

But you have to wonder if Scott privately wished his career hadn't coincided with golf's longest-reigning world No.1 following the Australian's candid revelations on the eve of the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles.

Still rehabilitating from the devastating leg injuries sustained in the car crash two years ago, Woods is the non-playing tournament host in LA, where Scott was quizzed about playing in the Tiger era.

Having shared swing guru Butch Harmon as a coach in their formative years, Scott said he'd "always had a really great relationship with Tiger".

But, fascinatingly, Scott - who climbed to world No.1 after winning the Masters in 2013 - confessed that Woods' psychological beat-downs more than two decades ago actually prevented him from flourishing until years later.

"Early in my career, I was able to be very up close and on the inside of his game. We were both working with Butch Harmon, the swing coach, and I played a lot of golf with Tiger early on," Scott said on Thursday.

"I actually think he was so good and he liked messing with me that it dented my confidence, to be honest. It took me a few years to figure that out.

"You know, then he's the ultimate competitor. If I showed signs of looking like I was playing well or was any potential threat, he would try and step on my throat and stop that immediately."

Like he did during a Harmon-arranged 18-hole match in Nevada in 2000 not long after Scott, a graduate of UNLV, turned pro and was making his way through the European Tour ranks.

Woods also happened to be in Harmon's Sin City home town getting a last-minute check-up before the US Open.

"I was nervous, of course," Scott recalled three years ago.

"We went out and played and we had a match, and I was maybe one down through the turn at Rio Secco.

"And then Tiger stepped it up and (went) birdie, birdie, birdie and eagles and stuff.

"He closed me out on the 14th, but he double-bogeyed the ninth for 63, and I was a bit blown away by what I saw.

"It was quite windy and I thought I played quite well. Probably shot about even par - and I was nine off the pace!

"I made probably a throwaway comment to Butch, something like, 'Maybe I should reconsider turning pro?'

"The only thing that made me feel good was he won the US Open by 15 (shots) the next week, so I was quite happy to see that no one else really played like that."

Scott first encountered Woods as a wide-eyed teenager at the 1996 Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.

"I missed qualifying and caddied for my buddy who qualified," Scott said.

"He was a left-hander and we were on the 10th hole teeing off and he blocked it into the 18th fairway and Tiger was coming down the 18th.

"I've got a carry bag over the shoulders and I was 15 and I was just a weed at the time. I had to clear Tiger's crowd for my buddy to hit a shot up to the 10th green.

"I was so nervous and just I was probably looking at Tiger more than I was looking at a yardage book on my man there.

"It was quite an experience to have him come down to Australia and drag thousands and thousands of people around.

"Yeah, I think it's easy, sometimes it's easy to forget that early Tiger-mania. I don't know if we'll see that again."

It was less than 18 months later that a 21-year-old Woods shocked the sporting world again with his record 12-shot victory at Augusta National to annex his first career major.

"I was in my final year of high school in Australia," Scott said.

"I'm pretty sure we were watching before school that morning. It was quite incredible.

"Obviously he was going to win on Sunday, but we EXPECTED it to happen.

"There was just this phenomenon happening at that time for the last eight months.

"I even watched him win the US Amateur in Australia and I don't know if the US Amateur's ever been seen in Australia before that - it was a big deal.

"Then he just ticked every box along the way for the next eight months and won the Masters by 12. It was just incredible.

"The impact even on me, I was an aspiring golfer and it was just amazing to have a figure like that.

"At that time, it was great timing for me in my career to really keep pushing me. I had Greg Norman be a dominant player up until I was 16, really, until Tiger came along.

"Then Tiger just took it to another level really."

Even for his exalted standards, it's most improbable that the wounded Woods, now closer to 50 than 40, will ever reprise such levels.

Scott just hopes he comes back some time.

"It'll be a sad day, whenever the day comes, that we don't see him play at all," Scott said.

"But it seems like he's hinted that he'll play here and there.

"It's been incredible to be out here almost his entire career and watch everything, sometimes from up close and sometimes from miles away.

"But what he's been able to do for us is great, even down to this tournament."