You lead the British Open by four shots with four holes to go. A dream position. But this is a major, and this is an Australian leader.
After a solid first three rounds at the 2012 Open Championship held at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Australian – Adam Scott was in prime position to win his first major championship, leading Northern Ireland’s, Graham McDowell by four shots at the start of play.
The majority of players came, but fell away around Scott throughout the afternoon, except for ‘The Big Easy.’
Ernie Els was the most consistent of the top players for the final round, carding a final round 2 under (68) which kept the pressure on Scott which was eventually too much.
It was a shaky start for the Australian, bogeying two of his first three holes before settling down into his round. Scott again made a bogey on 6, but a clinch putt on 14 gave Scott a 4 shot buffer before giving shots back to the field on holes 15-17.
Ernie Els drained a clutch birdie putt to cut Scott’s lead to just one shot as he came to the 17th.
Scott pulled his second shot left into the thick rough and was unable to get up and down, meaning a par for the Australian on the 18th, would force a play off. But that’s where it all went to pieces.
Instead of pulling out driver, Scott hit a 3-wood, which brought the fairway bunkers into play and sure enough that’s where Scott’s ball ended up, under the lip of the bunker. Scott chipped out sideways and had to make up and down from just inside 100m to force a play off with Els.
Scott’s approach shot finished 10 feet away and the Australian had the putt to stay in the tournament. Unfortunately for Scott his putt brushed the side of the cup which brought up his 4th bogey in the final 4 holes, and it dashed Australia’s hopes of having another major champion, which would have been our first since Geoff Ogilvy’s US Open success in 2006.
The ‘choke’ by Scott has already been labelled as bad or even worse than Greg Norman’s brain fade at the ’96 Masters. That day Nick Faldo overcame a six-stroke deficit going into the final round as Norman faltered down the stretch at Augusta, shooting a final round 78.
"It looked like it was gonna go for miles - and then it went nowhere!"
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