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Just one week after achieving the career triple crown at Royal Pines, Adam Scott has moved one step closer to realising the same feat in the same calendar year after successfully defending his Australian Masters title on Sunday.
Scott held a four-stroke advantage going into the final day at Royal Melbourne, but his double bogey at the 14th hole handed American Matt Kuchar a two shot lead at that point.
Leaving his approach shot plugged in the bunker at the par-three 14th, Scott blasted his next shot over the back of the green, but failed to get up and down from there.
“Fourteen was my biggest error of the day,” Scott said. “But that’s the advantage of starting four in front.”
“I just felt like I was around the mark. I wasn’t ever in too much trouble.”
Despite a brutal finish ahead of him, Scott rallied with a birdie on the 15th. Kuchar found trouble on his way to the clubhouse, carding a bogey at 16 and a double bogey at 18 to gift Scott a two shot lead playing the 18th hole.
“I knew there was going to be an opportunity down 15,” he said. “I just needed to hang in there.”
“I managed to just hang in long enough.”
A booming drive down the last left only a nine iron into the undulating final green, and with three putts to clinch victory, Scott needed only two to ensure he went back-to-back, following his win at Kingston Heath last year.
It also meant he won in consecutive weeks for the first time in his career.
“I have never won back-to-back weeks, so this is a first,” he said. “It’s something that I like.”
“I think it’s very hard to win two tournaments full stop, let alone back-to-back, so I’m very pleased with myself this week.”
Kuchar made a bright start on Sunday, but relinquished the lead with a poor finish. Having endured a long trip from America, including a delayed flight, Kuchar’s solo second finish was very impressive as he finished at 12-under, two shots behind Scott.
Vijay Singh, who fired the round of the week on Saturday, couldn’t repeat the dose, making life especially difficult for himself with a trio of bogeys on seven, eight and nine.
He finished alone in third at 10-under, ahead of Nick Cullen, who couldn’t make up any ground on Sunday with a 72 to be solo fourth at nine-under.
Matthew Griffin and Ryan Fox struggled during the final day to finish at six-under, one shot clear of Marc Leishman, whose round of the day 65 helped him soar into the top-10.